Philosophy Now Forum

Objectively, examining humans in a lab, without any presumption that it is like anything to be them, that there is anything subjectively mental going on, greatly simplifying questions like this, we can certainly, using e.g. "framing experiments" determine that it is possible to affect the ...

Now, it's simply a matter of whether you're truly interested in educating yourself, so that you learn about a wider scope of views, or whether your aim is simply an apologetic one for which you'd rather take the simplest, most sound-bitey route that will tend to be effective in more or less preachi...

The OP is just semantic garbage. Much garbage can be simply dumped out by contemplating "the problem of other minds." What is the Problem of Other Minds? http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/other-minds/ If one has no scientific evidence (or definition) regarding some individual's sentience a...

I'm not asking you what science is or what the scientific method is. I asked you a question you didn't actually answer. What if your gut tells you that science justifies some statement? Do you go with your gut in that case or not? I "go with my gut" in a more general way, just like you do...

Terrapin Station wrote:Why would I be stating something out of "fashion"? LOL

We have plenty of empirical evidence of physicalism. I mentioned this already. But you don't even need that. The very idea of nonphysical existents is incoherent.

You are not understanding me at all. It's ok. G'day.

For me it's about going with your gut vs claiming that science justifies some statement when it does not. What if your gut tells you that science justifies some statement?[/quote] That is precisely what science is NOT. At least, in theory. There is a scientific *method*. It is defined and followed....

Well, even without knowing exactly what brain state is something like making a truth judgment, if you just point at a brain in general you're pointing at making a truth judgment (when someone makes a truth judgment). It's kind of like pointing at a plant in general to point at photosynthesis. But w...

Hobbes' Choice wrote: Yeah but there might be no such thing as you and your game. It might just be part of the "matrix" programme that we are all hooked up to.

For me it's about going with your gut vs claiming that science justifies some statement when it does not.

I could be conscious and telling you about the nice day I'm having... Or I could be a sophisticated robot trying to fool you and it's working... How would you go about figuring out which? I mentioned this before. I'd check if you have a human brain first off. What if we don't play a game, though, a...

I could be conscious and telling you about the nice day I'm having...
Or I could be a sophisticated robot trying to fool you and it's working...

How would you go about figuring out which?

Neuroscientific evidence - correlates the activity in the brain with various behaviors. If the laws of physics account for all of the behaviors, then what does consciousness "do" ? And if that person's consciousness isn't doing anything, then how and why are you concluding that it is even ...

A doll can say "I feel good." Is that evidence for observers that it has subjective experiences? If it has a functioning human brain. There is always the possibility that it is "subjectively like something" to be my neighbor, or an ATM, or a rock, but shouldn't I be skeptical Ag...

If I remember something as being different than I perceive it to be now, I will label that change. Is this a mere "idea" ?

Perhaps. And so it is with a cup before me - which may be only a dream of a cup ...

That is where you have to stop. You cannot go further. Evidence itself is not objective. Objectivity comes though comparing the evidence of others and by agreement with your language community arrive at criteria upon which to measure and assess experience. This can be achieved reductively by discre...

"Most of what you say is sadly misconceived."

Then by all means, don't waste your time reading the links.