Philosophy Now Forum

No it's not, I saw the documentary. Actually almost all of the recent study group, that took the DMT, which is naturally occurring, in nerve tissue, so then can be said to have something to do with consciousness, though it's not fully understood at this point, said they experienced these fantastic ...

Since you're too lazy: Here's the scientific FACT: What a load of shite. There aren't any scientific FACTS, only theories, but the wikigarbage you posted doesn't put forward any theories about how psychoactive substances would give you an improved understanding of consciousness. This: "When in...

That's what I thought, you have nothing of interest to say on this subject. Forget I asked.

I don't come here to be sent off to read Wikipedia articles. If I wanted to hear the crazed rantings of some drug-addled fantasist, I would speak to one of my children. Now if you have some knowledge or insight of your own to impart, let's have it. However, the fact that you are willing to rely on t...

How do you think psychoactive substances give you an insight into consciousness that isn't available without them? Provide details please.

Have you read Nagel's paper?

http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/ahyvarin/te ... BeABat.pdf

There's an interesting discussion of the issue here:

http://info.sjc.ox.ac.uk/scr/hacker/doc ... %20bat.pdf

The Voice of Time wrote:Now you're going off-topic. I'd prefer more serious replies.

Oh no, I'm quite serious. Well, mostly serious.

We need to be clear about what you are asking.

Hvordan føles det å være et menneske. (literal translation word by word: How...feels...it..to be...a human) Taken from my own language Norwegian. I had assumed you were referring to Nagel's phrase, but he said "what is it like to be a bat?", not "what does it feel like to be a bat?&q...

The question must mean "what is it like to be a conscious human being?", because there isn't anything it is like to be an unconscious human being. So the question is "what is it like to have conscious experiences?" What do we mean by "what is it like?" We mean "wha...

What I don't understand is how it can be that there are people who apparently never feel compelled to dance at all. I don't think I ever feel compelled to dance, dancing has never felt particularly pleasurable to me. I'm a musician, I play Irish traditional music on the fiddle, it's dance music and...

Bernard wrote:
There is as much baloney in the East as in the West. I don't understand why you discount in one fell swoop philosophies from the East.

It's not philosophy, it's religion/fantasy.

Eastern Philosophy rips on Western and that people gravitate toward its ancient grove with respect and awe is testament to its power and continuing relevance. I don't know what "rips on" means, but the fact that people gravitate towards Eastern religious baloney is a testament to their gu...

[T]he claim that the itch is really located inside an image of the body created in the brain would have rather extraordinary consequences. Let me illustrate this with something that has bothered me since 1961. Between puffs on his Woodbine, Ned Ellis, my physics teacher, once asked the class where ...

As for the OP's central question of human consciousness, dependent on its nervous system but still autonomous, I offer my own simple reference model of the mind, based on computer architecture. In some respects, we have created modern information systems in our own image, therefore, it only makes s...

How about Consciousness is being aware of being aware ?? So what is "being aware" called? As you know what I mean, it requires no more explanation. I'm not convinced you know what you mean. It isn't helpful to the understanding to define consciousness as awareness of awareness, because th...