Philosophy Now Forum

Hello Novacka - thanks for the reply. You suggest that subjectivity and objectivity coexist as two sides of the same coin. In my opinion, this is a dualist account. The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy presents dualism in the following quote. "The crux of dualism is the apparently unbridgeabl...

Hello again Notvacka Ok! Your answer is coherent. I don’t agree with it, but it is a meaningful hypothesis considering the state of out present knowledge. You propose a dualist configuration of mental life. This separates subjectivity from its physical basis. This would suggest that subjectivity mig...

Hello Notvacka Thanks for the reply. I have differences with what you write. They are not small. You do have a point regarding Phrenology, in that even though Phrenology probably never attained the status of good science, its dismissal is more analogous to the evolution of scientific advance rather ...

A central problem for epistemology for over four hundred years has been the fallibility of the senses, and in turn the fallibility of knowledge. If science succeeds in explaining consciousness, and then is able to reproduce it artificially, in a computer for example, then human uniqueness is lessen...

Hello Notvacka Thanks for the response. You wrote "These topics have already been thoroughly explored in science fiction, and philosophy is way ahead of science in this." - These topics have been explored for so long chiefly because there has been no real movement for a long time. The poin...

Thanks Ginkgo No I am not putting forward dualism. I see no need for dualism. I would propose a theory of cognition, within which you could advance an explanation without being required to wield or resort to any notion of consciousness. I believe that consciousness may perhaps be reducible to cognit...

[quote="MarkM" I doubt that a scientific explanation of what consciousness is or how it works would have any negative impact upon philosophy. Science is not equipped to answer philosophical questions. I suspect any such explanation would bring new philosophical questions instead, without ...

Hello - I would like to add another looming threat to philosophy's reputation. Many scientists are anticipating that the problem of consciousness may be successfully tackled in the near future. It is possible that science could explain consciousness soon. This might be a problem for philosophy becau...

There is a particular philosophical position on consciousness that can roughly be summarized as the following: "Consciousness is a turing-computable function being performed by the biomechanics of the brain." Since the early 1970s, philosophers, scientists, and intellectuals of all stripe...

Thanks ! I too, am also a victim of my contrarian impulses.

Hello ForgedinHell - I want to play too. Imagine if science manages to explain consciousness. An explanation of consciousness would have a very large bearing on several philosophical questions and disputes. These include epistemology, scepticism, logic among others. If science solves some of these p...

[quote][/quote]Greetings and thanks for setting up and maintaining this forum. I am 52 tears old. I am Irish. I live in Seattle. I have a BA in Philosophy and Psychology. I drive for a living. I have maintained my interest in philosophy since college. My areas of interest are logic, epistemology and...