Questions tagged [consciousness]
Consciousness, and related notions like sentience and self-awareness, denote the capacity of certain organisms to express recognition of their own presence in the world.
2
votes
0answers
36 views
Which major philosophers (if any) prior to the 1900s believed that consciousness was an emergent property of the brain?
I am going to be doing an Independent Study with one of my professors, and I am obligated (due to the professor's expertise) to choose a philosopher prior to the 1900s.
Were there any philosophers ...
4
votes
2answers
147 views
Can an animal have qualia without self awareness?
Can an animal have qualia without self awareness? I understand that many animals are said to have qualia but not self awareness (perhaps not the great apes).
In particular, I'm having a hard time ...
-1
votes
0answers
152 views
Integrated Information Theory - If correct could humans create artificial consciousness with spatially dynamic digital systems? [on hold]
First off please keep in mind I am self-learning and am learning about this for fun, I have no end goal. I'm trying to make predictions about what I am learning implies or means, so I can ask better ...
1
vote
4answers
141 views
Where's Sophia along the “spectrum of consciousness”?
This is really more of a follow-up to all the recent (and not-so-recent) somewhat goofy (and maybe some not-so-goofy) ai-and-consciousness-type questions.
In that vein, I serendipitously stumbled ...
2
votes
1answer
84 views
If we had a hive mind, could we discover it?
Question prompted by @jobermark answer to my question: Are there many minds or is there only one?
The idea that 'greater-that-the-sum-of-its-parts' minds (functional decision capable entities) exist ...
2
votes
1answer
67 views
Can science account for consciousness
Looking at the mind and body it can presumably all be accounted for with physics and chemistry each activity happening purely as a result of the previous state just like as machine works (making free ...
1
vote
0answers
60 views
What is the minimum statement of faith?
Taking 'faith' to mean: an effective trust or acceptance of the veracity of certain statements of fact, or the truth of existential claims. I.e. the kind of faith/beliefs that are cardinal to the ...
0
votes
2answers
80 views
How can we describe consciousness?
Humans consist of complex physical materials. However, we determine and experience our lives through numerous spiritual moments. Should consciousness be described as an outcome of physical matter and ...
1
vote
0answers
20 views
Scholarly retorts to “Quining Qualia”?
I've been reading and rereading Daniel Dennett's dismissal of qualia, and I have been wanting to see what some of the experts in the field think of his portrayal.
For example, has Nagel, Hoffman, or ...
2
votes
3answers
181 views
What is consciousness
Is it a question that science may answer? This article became the root of my thinking.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/mar/01/consciousness-eight-questions-science
1
vote
4answers
175 views
Does it make sense to say that consciousness does not exist or there is no such thing?
Does it make sense to say that consciousness does not exist or there is no such thing? I've not taken any classes in reductionism, but it seems reductionst.
How would philosophy of mind and ...
1
vote
2answers
105 views
Is it rationally possible to believe in a sensationless soul after death?
Epicurus's thoughts on death were:
-Death is the cessation of sensation
-Good and evil only make sense in terms of sensation
Therefore: Death is neither good nor evil
My (sort of related) question ...
1
vote
3answers
79 views
can a dog give consent?
We know consciousness requires a specific level of awareness. Many people view other life forms who have a lower level of awareness as having a lower level of consciousness. Thus consciousness ...
1
vote
0answers
92 views
When would someone not have free will?
I was thinking about free will, and I kind of got confused. What would it look like for someone to not have free will?
For example, if someone was paralyzed, they could still control their thoughts. ...
2
votes
3answers
171 views
What is the physicalist response to the explanatory gap for conciousness?
The zombie argument against physicalism usually goes like this
Physically identical zombies are conceivable.
If zombies are conceivable, they are metaphysically possible.
Therefore physicalism is ...
0
votes
2answers
221 views
How do I believe in free will? [closed]
After considering all possible ways that famous philosophers have tried to explain it, and reading so many articles that treat it like God’s greatest gift to mankind, I still don’t get it.
Is it that ...
1
vote
1answer
151 views
Could “I” become consciousness as someone else in the future?
I want to immediately dismiss any idea of soul or spiritual component of human being and I accept that death is nothingness (end) when it comes to my question. No rebirth, reincarnation etc.
But ...
7
votes
1answer
172 views
Is there any literature discussing whether all conscious entities are separate, discrete experiencers or a single experiencer?
I would like to know if there is any work discussing whether conscious entities (minds) are perceived by different "experiencers," arguably who we are. The other option as far as I know would be ...
1
vote
2answers
78 views
Consciousness and Spacetime [closed]
What is consciousness?
Is our conceived perception a part of space or time?
Can we be conscious in a state where time is non existent, or frozen?
Is consciousness energy?
Does it adhere to ...
3
votes
1answer
91 views
Does anyone really know that they're conscious?
According to the YouTube video What Is Consciousness, somebody can know that they are conscious but doesn't know that other people are conscious. I think it might not even be possible for one to prove ...
4
votes
3answers
166 views
What is the relationship between consciousness and intelligence?
Some philosophers say that consciousness is all about experiences, feelings, etc.
Can we say that intelligence is also an experience or feeling making it one of the outcomes of consciousness
or ...
1
vote
5answers
192 views
Can physical aspects of the brain reveal everything about what one's subjective experience is like?
In Colin McGinn's "The Mysterious Flame," McGinn argues against the materialistic response to the hard problem of consciousness with the following argument:
Suppose I know everything about your ...
14
votes
9answers
739 views
Why am I this particular human being?
Some philosophers dismiss this as a question about a tautology: when Alice asks "Why am I Alice?", this is equivalent to her asking "Why is Alice Alice?", which is not an interesting question. But ...
6
votes
1answer
106 views
How do epiphenomenalists make sense of discussions about qualia?
Epiphenomenalists believe that mental events have no causal effect on the physical. They may differ in what they consider "mental events" but it seems all of them would consider qualia / phenomenal ...
2
votes
7answers
237 views
Consciousness doesn't need your body - a thought experiment
1) During a deep sleep, your consciousness deactivates to reactivate upon awakening
2) During a deep sleep, you are narcotized and killed, to be replaced instantly by an identical copy, which wakes ...
2
votes
1answer
63 views
What is the relation between consciousness and thinking? [closed]
This jumble of questions isn't organized in any specific way. Please don't feel the need to address all the questions.
Do we need the ability to think or be in possession of a unifying self to be ...
0
votes
0answers
29 views
If a memory of your younger self had consciousness, would that disprove skeptical ideas surrounding the past?
(Note: this isn't about disproving external world skepticism, but that past experiences actually happened and are not merely false memories.)
In short, I am asking you to imagine having a memory of ...
0
votes
2answers
103 views
Do other animals have conscience?
Does any other animal (apart from humans) have conscience, feel guilt, and have the ability to discern right and wrong?
2
votes
1answer
78 views
Was active ignorance the genesis of self awareness?
In other words, is an organism's ability to ignore some of the sensory input it receives from the outside world the first requirement in defining self from other?
7
votes
9answers
247 views
If there's an physically identical copy of me, is that me?
I recently came up with a question. It is as you may know based on consciousness.
Let’s say I made a blueprint of myself, exactly the same person I am talking at the atomic level. Let us say the ...
0
votes
5answers
182 views
If we don't have free will, why was the quality of being conscious selected for?
I think scientists agree that we're conscious and aware that we have consciousness and awareness. But they don't agree on whether we have free will. I think they don't even have a universal definition ...
2
votes
1answer
155 views
Cloning: Will you be the same person? [closed]
Imagine, in the future, we have mastered the technology of cloning.
The rich and powerful have got their own cloning devices. They clone their bodies and keep the clones in a cryogenic environment to ...
4
votes
4answers
1k views
Does consciousness exist?
I am not the first to ask that question. There is at least the article written by William James with that very same title in:
The Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods, Vol. 1,
...
4
votes
2answers
135 views
What if Brentano was wrong?
Brentano held that every mental phenomenon has content, has a mental object, is about a mental object, or words to that effect.
However, skillful Buddhist phenomenologists, over millenia, have found ...
1
vote
1answer
155 views
The Hard Problem of Consciousness and Wave Function Collapse [closed]
Philosophers and physicists have been throwing around the idea that "consciousness causes collapse" since the early days of QM. Today most physicists reject this idea, but it seems to me this is ...
0
votes
0answers
22 views
How can an animal be interested in avoiding pain, without being aware that one has such an interest?
Source: Benatar, David. Better Never to Have Been (2008 1 edn). pp. 135-136.
I don't understand 1 and 2 beneath. Please LMK if 2 ought be asked as a separate question.
Philosophers have offered ...
0
votes
6answers
105 views
bypass for morality, proof of consciousness
Logically morality can stem from thinking that other people are just as living / human as yourself, so you shouldn't do to others what you don't want to be done to you.
But this can be bypassed by ...
3
votes
13answers
682 views
Sketch of a proof for real free will?
I have read many contemporary philosophers and the mainstream view seems to be that real free will is an illusion in the sense that consciousness is an emergent phenomenon which is only set on top of ...
3
votes
4answers
143 views
Is the phenomenom of “subjective consciousness” or “qualia” formally captured by any state-of-the-art Theoretical Model in Physics?
Is the phenomenon of "subjective consciousness" or "qualia" formally captured or defined by any state-of-the-art Theoretical Model in Physics? If so, can you share a brief summary of such ...
2
votes
2answers
104 views
Is it possible for the “feeling of having a rational thought” to be an illusion? If so, how can you have any confidence whatsoever in your thoughts?
All our reasoning, logic, deductions, Science, Philosophy, eureka moments, Aha! moments, etc. are based on a feeling of confidence that we are "thinking correctly", we are "reasoning correctly", we ...
1
vote
5answers
593 views
If consciousness is an emergent property of brain state, does this mean that we can only truly exist for 1 Planck unit of time?
Suppose my self-awareness, consciousness, point of view (POV) or qualia is not a "thing in itself" but rather an intrinsic emergent property of my brain's current brain state.
Then, as my brain ...
4
votes
4answers
227 views
If two brains A and B were 100% identical, why would A's self-awareness emerge in A instead of emerging in B and viceversa?
What I'm asking is basically how is the "self-awareness allocation problem" solved. I know this problem can be confusing, so let me try to explain it by means of examples:
Example 1: Let’s imagine ...
0
votes
2answers
249 views
Is 'self ownership' encompassed in John Locke's 3 natural and inalienable human rights life liberty and property?
Every man has a property in his own person. This nobody has any right
to but himself. The labour of his body and the work of his hand, we
may say are properly his.
[- John Locke, Second Treatise, ...
3
votes
2answers
141 views
Is there any coherent argument in support of consciousness being an illusion?
Whenever, I hear someone like, say, Daniel Denett say conscious is an "illusion", I'm always left pretty stumped. Firstly, both the terms "consciousness" and "illusion" are generally left undefined, ...
13
votes
12answers
5k views
How do materialists respond to the thought experiment of the perception of blue and red colors being swapped?
By materialism, I mean the belief that the totality of all in existence is material. That is, particles/waves/energy in the space-time fabric.
If one were to construct a thought experiment that ...
1
vote
4answers
116 views
Continuity of our consciousness beyond physical life
From (superficial) reading about this subject I am a Physicalist (our consciousness doesn’t exist without our brain)
I am trying to keep an open mind about Mind–body dualism but I find it difficult ...
4
votes
1answer
177 views
Schrödinger: order and perception
In a book called What is life? the Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger ask himself why we don't perceive atoms, and says:
The reason for this is, that what we call thought is itself an
orderly ...
5
votes
6answers
314 views
What happens to consciousness after death?
Is it possible that our innate sense of self, our egocentric outlook on the world, could be wrong? After all, our brains are never REALLY connected; so we cannot know for sure that our consciousness ...
2
votes
1answer
103 views
Would there be any point in mind-uploading?
If you cloned a human being, atom for atom, you would almost certainly find that you've created a new entity, with its own consciousness, and memory of having been previously conscious. Assuming the ...
2
votes
0answers
135 views
The exaggeration of the role of observer in quantum mechanics
In the famous double slit experiment, it's often said that the presence of an observer causes the electrons to behave as particles. "The need for the "observer" to be conscious has been rejected by ...
