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.
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Seeking Clarification on the Terminology Used in Spinoza and Locke's Epistemologies
I'm currently studying the works of Spinoza and Locke and I'm struggling to fully comprehend their respective epistemologies. Specifically, I'm trying to understand the relationship between Spinoza's ...
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How could we disprove the notion that society is a conscious entity?
Humans are made up of billions of cells.
You and I are human, and we can perceive our existence.
Cells and their consciousness can be debatable, but they indeed operate in a way that indicates they ...
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Is it implausible to claim consciousness is a fundamental?
The notion of fundamentality, as it is used in metaphysics, aims to
capture the idea that there is something basic or primitive in the
world. This metaphysical notion is related to the vernacular use ...
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What are the different types/levels of consciousness in the experiencing of feelings?
What type of consciousness is the mere experience of having a feeling. So one has a feeling of anger, happiness, excitement, etc. By the word "mere," I mean the feeling is not reflected on;...
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Do distinctions and concepts exist?
Before answering the question, keep in mind that I am a second-year Biology student, with a lack of formal study in Philosophy.
Original post: I believe, all definitions, words, and concepts (...
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How meaningful is the notion of now here on Earth?
Special relativity and the lack of a now moment is causing me a bit of grief.
How meaningful is the notion of now here on Earth between each of us? Does the lack of an objective now moment in any way ...
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Relation between free will and consciousness
What is the relationship between consciousness and free will ? Many scientists think there is no free will.
And does free will mean a phenomenon not bound by cause and effect ?
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Please clarify this answer about the argument
I did not understand how this argument should sound.
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/other-minds/#BestExpl
The article reads as follows: On this way of thinking, mental states are taken to be inner ...
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Is this statement convincing and good? [closed]
There is the following wording:
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck.
What type of argument is this?
If we use this argument in favor of the existence ...
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Are perceptual arguments convincing and good?
Are the perceptual arguments for the existence of other minds convincing and good?
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/other-minds/#PercKnowOtheMind
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/other-minds/#...
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How do ordinary people and scientists maintain their belief that other people also have minds? [duplicate]
How do ordinary people and scientists maintain their belief that other people also have minds?
Which do ordinary people and scientists use arguments for their belief that other people also have minds?
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Is there a non-circular definition of consciousness?
All the definitions of consciousness I have come across seem to be circular. It is usually defined to be "experience", or "something that it is like to be". But that is circular. ...
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In Book V, Proposition XXIII, Spinoza appears to argue that the human mind is partially eternal
In Book V, Proposition XXIII, Spinoza argues: "The human mind cannot be absolutely destroyed with the body, but there remains of it something which is eternal."
I read through the argument ...
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Are there any relevant philosophers who’ve touched on the points raised?
Below is a summary of my thoughts on reality and human consciousness:
Man I watched Michio Kaku talk about quantum mechanics/spirituality and finished reading that declassified CIA document about ...
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What arguments can I use to justify my belief in other minds? [duplicate]
What arguments can I use to justify my belief in other minds?
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/other-minds/
Here are all the arguments in favor of the existence of other minds, but I do not ...
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What's the solution to the problem of other minds? [duplicate]
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/other-minds/
I have never understood what the solution to the problem of other minds is.
At first, the article said that:
"One standard line of reply to this ...
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Which do ordinary people and scientists use arguments for their belief that other people also have minds? [duplicate]
Which do ordinary people use arguments for their belief that other people also have minds?
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What is the name of this view, that consciousness builds reality?
The following is really my own conception, but I have no credentials in philosophy. Nevertheless, I find it quite compelling.
It is said (Hegel?) that mind has the property that (a) it is inside ...
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is there a possibility that mind still exists after death?
The link between brain activity and qualia is unexplained. But most people think the former causes the latter.
What if its the other way, that our mind creates the external universe?
This does not ...
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Giving up or Moving on. What's the Difference?
I was struggling to decide whether to put this here or under Psychology, but here we are.
Usually when people face circumstances that are hard enough to be handled at a given moment of time. From ...
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Is it possible to be conscious without feeling emotions?
Is emotion a necessary component of consciousness? Or is it possible for some conscious entity, like maybe an artificial intelligence, to not feel any emotions? I would also like to know what ...
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In a view that consciousness is illusion, what does statement "I am conscious" mean?
Is it also in the view that it is illusion that I am conscious?
Is it possible that one is in illusion that he is conscious, but actually he is not conscious?
Can consciousness be illusion as some ...
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What are the main arguments that emergence-based theories of consciousness can't solve the hard problem of consciousness?
Ever since reading Douglas Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher, Bach as a teenager I've been fascinated by the idea that consciousness is an emergent property of physical systems. Roughly the claim is that ...
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Are neural networks in machine learning conscious according to the integrated information theory (IIT) of consciousness?
Would proponents of the integrated information theory of consciousness consider neural networks in machine learning to be conscious?
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If our “self” is the sum of our parts, why do we feel continuity?
An introduction
I've been feeling a very strong "death anxiety" for at least a week now. It's been really affecting my output, and - even though I understand it's irrational (maybe?) - I can'...
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Can a Philosophical Zombie realize that itself has no Qualia?
So, ok, it's by definition impossible for an outsider to spot a philosophical zombie, but could a philosophical zombie introspectively look inside itself and realize that it has no qualia?
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Intelligence as a prerequisite for consciousness/sentience?
Google engineer Blake Lemoine recently made headlines by claiming that he thought Google's LaMDA conversational AI was sentient, based on his interactions with it. (E.g.: https://www.wired.com/story/...
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Consciousness and computation
What are the links that are proposed between consciousness and computation? I.e. what are the theories of how computation creates consciousness?
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Is the God of Spinoza a conscious being?
Per Spinoza, everything ultimately derives from God and as humans are conscious beings through the attribute of thought, would it then follow that God is a conscious being through the attribute of ...
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Experience as an initial value problem?
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The argument seems to say just as I have a physical initial value problem and with the laws of physics tell the time evolution, similarly, I can have an initial value problem of experience ...
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What is consciousness? Is it the ultimate reality of our universe? What implications do the various theories of consciousness have on human life?
Does a child has more consciousness associated with her or her adult form?
What about her foetus? If her foetus is not yet properly developed (it has just accumulated a bit more mass and complexity ...
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Functionalism and potential causation
Functionalism, in philosophy of consciousness, is the idea that consciousness arises from the functional role that parts of a system play within that system.
More specifically, as I interpret it here:
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How is the study of consciousness (as a discipline) differs from philosophy of mind, psychology, and cognitive neuroscience?
I recently come across books on the study of consciousness per se which seems to use a multidisciplinary approach similar to how cognitive science was studied about 30 years ago (being a joint effort ...
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Could the principles behind Ohm's apply to more than electricity mindlessly taking the shortest path? [closed]
Nobody seems to think of electricity as a being conscious because it doesn't think, it doesn't have free will nor intelligence, it just follows Ohm's law and can't do anything else. That doesn't make ...
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Is a decision made before the rationalization?
Well, I was listening to a podcast in Spanish and a great scientist was saying that there are studies that are seeing that decision making is not as rational as we think it is. He says that the moment ...
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Is Dennett what Williamson calls a Judgement Skeptic?
Timothy Williamson in Evidence in Philosophy, chapter 7 section 3 of his book "Philosophy of Philosophy" (2007), conveys the notion of the Judgement Skeptic - e.g. (bold emphasis is mine)
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Does knowledge require consciousness?
Does knowledge require consciousness for the entity that knows? In other words, is it the case that only conscious entities can know things? I was led to ask this question by considering whether or ...
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Which branch combines solipsism and monism?
Which branch of philosophy whole-heartedly accepts (and builds upon) that only self exists (solipsism) and the universe is the part/creation of self (monism) by eliminating the possibility of ...
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Are Boltzmann brains conscious under functionalism?
How can they be conscious if there is no function/computation going on? And who argues that they are not conscious (I haven't found anyone except David Wallace just stating that this is his view on a ...
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AI philosophers
Which modern philosophers examine problems of ethics and knowledge between artificial, intelligent agents, leaving their relationship to humans aside?
What I'm looking for:
The assumption that AIs ...
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If Integrated Information theory is correct, might ant colonies and beehives be conscious and self aware?
Julio Tononi proposes that consciousness arises when information is extensively processed and shared between components of a system (like the brain). Ants and bees (and some fungi) share chemical ...
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What if I get born again as the same person for ever?
What if after I die my life starts all over again? With the same body and the same consciousness! Do you have counterarguments? 😓
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What if my life starts all over again for all eternity?
What if only I have a consciousness and after I die my life starts all over again for all eternity?! And the memories of my previous life get deleted? Please give me counterarguments! 😔
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What if my life gets repeated again and again?
What if only I am real? What if when I die my life starts all over again? Like an endless loop? And all of my memories get deleted? Please give me arguments against this!
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Is the claim that a non conscious entity cannot create a conscious entity valid?
In a debate I watched online, the theist person claimed that conscious creatures, such as humans, can only be created by a conscious being, because a non conscious being isn't able to give this ...
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What are the best Arguments against solipsism?
I am afraid that only my consciousness exists. That basically my consciousness simulates my body and the entire world. Please help me.
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When can we arrive at a border but not cross it?
Does that mathematisation of consciousness allow us to think of arriving at a limit but not crossing (some things seem to suggest we do not cross borders we do get to)? Is that the case only for some ...
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How can visual and other sensory information be transmitted by genes?
As we learned from those viral videos –look up “cat cucumber” if you haven’t seen them–, cats seem to be hard-wired to be scared of cucumbers and other objects that resemble snakes.
Behavioural ...
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How to tell if a transferred consciousness is authentic
In star trek when people get on the transporter they pop out somewhere. But how do we know if they are not just clones. Is there a test that actually exist in real life that can actually tell if a ...
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‘Libet’s delay’ and the philosophy of mind and free will
If you are not familiar with Libet delay and the neuroscience of free will, you can read it below. It seems philosophers are interested in the topic since it relates to the philosophical notions of ...
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