On Thu, Jul 20, 2006 at 04:07:17PM +0200, Bruno Marchal wrote:
>
> Surely there is much more to Chalmers than this. What you call
> "anti-chalmerites" here, are those naturalist who just don't get the
> understanding of the mind/body problem. They are numerous since about
> 500 after JC. So they are glad with any explanation of the form you
> describe above.
> Now the chalmerites are aware of the problem, and, those who like
> Chalmers want to stay close to both naturalism and computationalism are
> obliged to depart enough of comp to get a dualism. That they are forced
> to make that move is literally a consequence of the UD Argument.
>
> Bruno
>
On the subject of the "mind-body" problem, I take it that the problem
is how to explain the attachment of the mind to the "body" (or brain
if you prefer).
Some people seems to assert this is a non problem: eg physicalists
(there is no mind) and idealists (there is no body), but like you, I
think that is a copout.
To refine the problem a little further - we see a brain in our
observed reality on which our mind supervenes. And we see other
brains, for which we must assume supervenience of other persons (the
no zombies assumption).
What is the cause of this supervenience? It is a symptom of the
anthropic principle (observed reality being consistent with our
brains), but this is merely transferring the mystery. In my ToN book I
advance the argument that this has to be something to do with
self-awareness - ie the body is necessary for self-awareness, and
self-awareness must therefore be necessary for consciousness.
Bruno, I know in your theory that introspection is a vital component
(the Goedel-like constructions), but I didn't see how this turns back
onto the self-awareness issue. Did you develop this side of the argument?
Cheers
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Received on Fri Jul 21 2006 - 21:17:15 PDT