bert1

Is the present real or imaginary, psychologically? What, thermodynamically, separates the past from the future?

Oh, OK, so there is no now. Are the past and future imaginary?

Oh, that's a shame. Anyone else know what I'm talking about? Or is it too opaque for everyone? EDIT: Whenever you are conscious, it's now isn't it? Is...

It's not about having an absolute now. A relative now would do. Consciousness is sufficient for a now - I am never conscious in the past or the future...

Oh, I don't know. Maybe, but I was joking I think. I started off not joking thinking it would be fun, then realised it might not be fun at all, then f...

For which you bear partial responsibility

Would a universe without consciousness have any states-of-affairs? Would there ever be a now, a present moment in such a universe, in which a state-of...

It was a natural interpretation of your words.

I would thoroughly enjoy abusing them, although I'm not sure I would enjoy it actually, knowing that they aren't actually suffering.

The difficulty with it is its circular definition. Is it any more than monism? What have you said about something when you say it is physical?

I think 24 is enough for most things.

Street frequently went a bit apoplectic. I didn't find him offensive but I support the ban. Rules and have to apply to everyone, including the relativ...

I don't think that's what dictionaries intend. The definition of 'tree' on dictionary.com uses qualifiers such as 'usually' and 'ordinarily' to indica...

Christianity isn't really codified in the new testament is it? It's hardly an unambiguous watertight legal document.

Is there any significance to your use of 'we' rather than 'I'? You may have just been careless, or it may have been deliberate.

Oh indeed. I was just trying to bring out different usages of 'like', one as a way to compare, and one to indicate phenomenality.

I find this a very interesting one. I interpret this as "You only start to think when you meet an obstacle to your expansion." It is perhaps the idea ...

Nice idea for a thread. I've always loved the Marriage of Heaven and Hell. The proverbs are cool. That's really interesting, I never though of that pr...

There is an ambiguity. Consider the conversation: "What is it like to visit Vegas?" "It's not like anything at all." The reply is ambiguous, and that ...

Privacy is certainly an issue yes. When I burn my hand, you don't feel anything. There is something private about experience.

It's not important. Maybe the point to make is that the question: "What is it like to be a bat?" means the same thing as: "How does it feel to be a ba...

I'm not sure it has a meaning abstracted from the sentence. Consider the northern expression "Does it heck as like". You can't really abstract the mea...

The expression is just one way of approaching the concept. For some it works. For others it's confusing. It's not supposed to imply any comparison.

One way is perhaps to ask "Why can't the whole of evolution happen without anything feeling anything, without anything having an experience? Why doesn...

Or you can take a Jordan Peterson approach, which is interesting but also cheating.

I think there can, but they have to involve a bit of cheating. You start with something you know exists. Then you interpret some concept of God is suc...

I agree with your argument. It's an oldie and a goodie. Most famously made by Spinoza I suppose.

The issue of advance directives does give a practical application to questions of identity. Would my future demented self appreciate my current self m...

The brake shoes on my car are very worn. But that is grist to your mill.

This is a good start. You're accepting responsibility for communication, and not blaming your reader for not understanding you. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UjIUV3Kzjc

OK, thanks. The article wasn't clear to me. I got that he was right wing, but I couldn't find a clear point.

Sorry, I don't understand. Was the journalist in the OP article saying maths teaching isn't racist? And who is saying it is? Critical Race Theory isn'...

The article is reactionary shite.

Philosophers don't actually talk about life all that much. They've let biologists have that concept. Again, professional philosophers don't all that m...

I'm sorry I'm not getting the point across properly. If you are interested, this article probably explains it much better than I have: https://philpap...

Really?! Then that is the end of the philosophy of consciousness. Yet why are neuroscientists and professional philosophers still talking about this a...

These are all conscious states though. Here:

Well, that's the question. There are a couple of suggestions: 1) These processes are just what we mean by consciousness. We should ditch the old unsci...

I'm always faintly surprised that when I use a tape measure to measure a gap, divide that figure in two, then cut two bits of wood according to the ha...

Thank you, that's very interesting, and clearly put. My own position on causal closure is that physical explanations must be reducible to psychologica...

Could be! :)

That might be it! Depending on what you mean exactly. Can you give an example of a semi-conscious state?

This is helpful and clearly expressed. I think I do say 'ouch' because of the experience, although this is questionable as there may be times when I s...

Thank you. :) EDIT: I infer from your response that you think we just keep going until we have a good theory that you don't perceive as a tautology.

Indeed. I don't regard panpsychism as giving up, but you do. And giving up on explaining consciousness in terms of brain function may not necessarily ...

Just out of interest, at what point, in the attempt to explain consciousness in terms of brain function, would giving up be justified, and not be lazy...

Most starkly, I think that's impossible because the formation of an identity is always a vague matter, there is no absolutely sharp cut-off point betw...

I'm talking about functionalist theories of consciousness that say that consciousness just is brain function. If consciousness brain function, and tha...

OK, lets write it out: .... ... ... ... ... ... .... ... Please tell me what goes in between unconscious and conscious? I have included the concepts o...