On 1 January 2014 14:19, Edgar L. Owen <[email protected]> wrote: > Liz, > > It's easy to demonstrate that consciousness is NOT its contents by the > simple mental exercise of meditation in which the contents of consciousness > are diminished to the point of vanishing. The more consciousness is emptied > of individual contents, the clearer and brighter it becomes. Therefore > there is clearly something called consciousness itself in which its > contents become conscious by arising within it. >
I'm not sure this proves anything. Some might say that the contents of consciousness don't vanish during meditation, but that they simply change into something "clear and bright". > > Also the contents of consciousness continually vary, but the fact of > consciousness is persistent and continuous more or less the same. Therefore > consciousness cannot be its contents. > Making this distinction relies on the assumption that there *is* a "fact of consciousness" separate from the "contents of conciousness", and hence is begging the question <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begging_the_question>. > > This is quite clear to anyone who has experienced it.... > I agree with your opinion that the contents of consciousness are different from the fact of consciousness, but this isn't clear from your arguments above, and it also isn't clear to a whole bunch of philosophers, for example dear old Dan Dennett... Dennett states that the phenomenon of having experience is nothing more > than the performance of functions or the production of behavior, which can > also be referred to as the easy problems of consciousness. He states that > consciousness itself is driven simply by these functions, and to strip them > away would wipe out any ability to identify thoughts, feelings, and > consciousness altogether. So, unlike Chalmers and other dualists, Dennett > says that the easy problems and the hard problem cannot be separated from > each other. To him, the hard problem of experience is included among—not > separate from—the easy problems, and therefore they can only be explained > together as a cohesive unit. >From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_problem_of_consciousness -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
