On 16 February 2014 16:17, Bruno Marchal <[email protected]> wrote: > The whole schema - "physics" included - would then have to be considered > an epiphenomenon of some inaccessible ur-physics. > > Exactly. > > I'm not sure that it's exactly a contradiction just because of that, > though, as in practice any putative ontological base - numbers included - > must be inaccessible in this sense, except to theory. > > It illustrates, perhaps better than step 8, the difficulty of wanting a > primitive matter having a primitive ontological reality capable of > singularizing a conscious person capable to refer to it. > > I have to think more about this. >
I must say that it is this form of argument that most forcefully persuades me that the reversal of comp-physics is necessary if CTM is to be salvageable. ISTM that MGA or Maudlin-style arguments tend to lead to somewhat ad hoc quibbling over the role of counterfactuals or the like. But the comp account of consciousness - or indeed any non-eliminativist position - strongly entails that thought can refer only to epiphenomenal matter (to continue with that way of speaking). The leap from epiphenomenal to primitive matter then seems inadequately motivated, to say the least. The most typical explicit motivation is by appeal to evolutionary arguments - e.g. that we have evolved more-or-less accurate internal models to aid in our survival in the "real" external world of physics. But this appeal conceals a blatant begging of the question: yes, it must *appear* so, but it is precisely these appearances that we should seek to explain on independent grounds, not by assuming what is to be explained. I wonder if you have had any further thoughts? David -- 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.
