Real Gone Cat

This is why you have been cautioned to be careful citing quantum physics in your arguments. It is not the fact that the observer (I deliberately omit ...

Ah,yes. A paradox that might amuse Bertrand Russell : if the universe contains everything that exists, then where to put it’s creator. I think this me...

Are you arguing just to be contrary? Of course those. They are the only two you mention. And subsequently dismiss. So list what explanations you do fi...

Ah, sorry. You do not actually think those are valid alternatives. So what alternatives do you consider valid? I can't see how the immaterialist avoid...

I think we're generally in agreement, but Gnomon may have struck close to the truth with this quote : I have always held that minds are not just brain...

Ok, you lost me. You mean we're getting signals from other universes? Interesting...

Sorry to jump in, but this quote bugs me : So there is incoming information. From where? If there is an Inside and an Outside to existence, then physi...

I am young and new to philosophy, so please forgive my naivete. Without examining the ideas involved, I have always lived as a carefree materialist. I...

Um... The 3 Laws of p-Zombies?

Aargh! Inelegantly stated on my part (I was half asleep when typing it up). Of course modus ponens arguments are valid or invalid but not true or fals...

So what do you say about the following : If pigs can fly, then the moon is made of cheese Pigs can fly Conclusion : The moon is made of cheese Clearly...

(This has the danger of going in circles like the discussion with Michael.) But why is consciousness different from flying? Flying is obviously physic...

Ooh, I think the flying pigs are going to help. Sure it's possible to conceive of flying pigs, but what if I describe the world of flying pigs as bein...

To conceive of a being which is physically identical to a human, but which is different as regards consciousness, it is necessary to believe that cons...

You are simply wrong. P-zombies are not conceivable unless consciousness is believed to be non-physical. Believing that consciousness is non-physical ...

The physicalist's argument is not up for consideration. We are only trying to establish whether Chalmers' argument is valid. (This reminds me of how T...

Ooh, beat you to it!

The problem is that the things we are asked to conceive (p-zombies) are only possible if you assume the conclusion - i.e., that consciousness is not p...

Are you arguing that a vague, confused, unclear concept is conceivable? All are synonyms for incoherent.

I would argue that the pictures cannot truly be conceived either. Escher's drawings are visual oxymorons - very complex oxymorons. Sure, you can strin...

I am arguing that if something is in the category of incoherent then it is necessarily in the category of inconceivable. Look, this is very simple - C...

But can we take in the entire picture, or just focus on its parts? Can you see the duck and the rabbit simultaneously?

So can something be incoherent, but still conceivable? Concept A is known to be incoherent - can concept A be conceivable?

What is the distinction? If a concept is incoherent can it be conceived?

Is it possible for a concept to be incoherent yet conceivable? Can you give examples?

But even if a machine becomes conscious one day, how would we ever know? A computer might insist all day long that it is a "real live boy", but that c...

Ah, I got your point after sending the last comment. To use realist language, we might say : Light waves reflected from a tree come into contact with ...

So, whatever is happening inside a person's head at any given moment is their (present phenomenal) experience. That idea is, of course, unfalsifiable ...

Hi TS. I had a busy weekend and couldn't get back to you. First know that, in all that I say, I am arguing a contrarian position and not my own. I am ...

I thought you were trying to say that the organization-of-the-parts was itself a part. So to help me better understand, I must ask : What do you think...

Sorry to answer a question with a question, but ... Do you distinguish between experience and narrative? If so, can there be present phenomenal experi...

(Sorry, I can't type fast enough and always think of little edits I want to add.) What I am trying to say is that present mental content is narrative,...

But doesn't this argument suggest that experience may be doubted? Narrative-of-a-supposed-experience (which may be in the present) is not the same as ...

No, the narrative ("Oh look, a tree.") may be in the present, but knowledge of the experience we believe we are presently having cannot be direct, and...

Reply : The problem that MU has identified re past and present can be stated another way : All knowledge is narrative. We have no direct access to pre...

So the "sum of the parts" consists of the material parts and their organization (arrangement). How then is the whole different from the sum of the par...

Let me try again : A listing of the parts (the sum of the parts) is a whole no less so than any other arrangement of the parts. And no arrangement car...

If you asked my children, a moron is the driver of another car when riding with Dad.

The whole (i.e., particular arrangement) is never greater than the sum (i.e., listing) of the parts unless an observer decides it to be the case. In f...

Saw my sister's new kid over the holidays. It put me in mind of some of my favorite lullabies. Don't know much about Chelsea P. Manders, but I like th...

I first read LotR in the 1970s. Yes, I'm that old. Can't stand Lewis - a terrible story teller. Have you ever read the last book in his series? A biza...

Do you listen to any Tropicalia? I just picked up some Tom Ze. Here is a video of Gilberto Gil, Tom Ze, and Caetano Veloso singing Veloso's sublime so...

I was born and raised among civilized folk who said "soda". I now live in "pop" country. Bumpkins.

Of course, there are several characters in LotR who might merit consideration : Gandalf, Aragorn, certainly Frodo. But I think it is someone else, and...

I must be terrible at recognizing symbolism - I have never seen Catholicism in Tolkien's work, other than in the broad sense that both conform to aspe...

Hmm, I need to consider this a bit. My first reaction is that the neurological activity is in response to the incoming information, but I do not disco...

The action required to place one's sensing organs in better position to pick up incoming information (reaching out with the hand, bringing food to the...

Given your exchange with MU, I am somewhat surprised by this. Regarding vision, it seems reasonable to assert that sensing does not extend beyond the ...

I would amend that slightly. The cat does not cause the observer to have a visual experience, but it does cause the visual experience to be that of a ...

Ah, its the combination of sensing organs and cat that causes the cat to be observed. No observer and no cat, then no observation of a cat. I'm hip. B...