Richard:
Old-fashioned radical skepticism is only easily refutable within a context of “adequate epistemological theory” that also refutes epiphenomenalism. Once you invoke bridging laws at all it is entirely arbitrary what sort of consciousness they form a bridge to from physicality. As an epiphenomenalist you are already assuming the informational equivalent of an demon by asserting bridging laws. It’s just that you are a) calling it a “natural law” though it looks ABSOLUTELY NOTHING like the sort of natural laws discovered by scientists, and b) assuming it to be a truthful demon.
Richard: Old-fashioned radical skepticism is only easily refutable within a context of “adequate epistemological theory” that also refutes epiphenomenalism. Once you invoke bridging laws at all it is entirely arbitrary what sort of consciousness they form a bridge to from physicality. As an epiphenomenalist you are already assuming the informational equivalent of an demon by asserting bridging laws. It’s just that you are a) calling it a “natural law” though it looks ABSOLUTELY NOTHING like the sort of natural laws discovered by scientists, and b) assuming it to be a truthful demon.