Dear all,
Please join us for the CamPoS (Cambridge Philosophy of Science) seminar
Wednesday 29th April 1-2:30pm in the Deptartment of History and
Philosophy of Science, Seminar Room 2 (Basement).
Catherine Wilson (York) will give a talk entitled "From the biological
self to psychological self". The abstract is below.
Best wishes,
Christopher
Abstract:
In his book On Consciousness, David Chalmers famously argued that a
thermostat might be conscious and that consciousness might even be
associated in some way with a rock or an electron. Although
empirically-minded people find it hard to take this seriously,
Chalmers rightly stated that anyone who thought that the thermostat
idea was 'crazy' was obliged to explain why.
I believe the short explanation for why the thermostat is not
conscious is that it is stuck to the wall. The longer explanation I
will venture is that consciousness is a feature of mobile,
self-propelled, self-protective biological individuals. We should not
be intimidated by 'zombie-twin' arguments involving possible worlds
into thinking that the 'hard problem' is completely resistant to
scientific enquiry and reflection.
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