Unknown—I think we need to clear up our definitions of ‘incoherent’. Saying that a zombie world is incoherent doesn’t mean that one can’t visualise that world. It means that a world isomorphic to our own but ‘without consciousness’ is not different from our own in any measurable way. Hence the assertion that the the zombie world is interesting/useful is incoherent. Saying that the posulated ‘difference’ is beyond the realm of science is the religionist stance.
From Richard’s blog:
There’s no denying that the [zombie] world itself is possible, physically identical to our own, and yet lacking something of a mentalistic sort, however we end up describing it. And that’s enough to refute physicalism[.]
Again, please don’t base an argument, philosophical or no, on a ‘something’. Or at least say what you mean and call it a soul. We don’t understand consciousness, that is granted. But ‘something’ is a mysterious answer to a mysterious question. This sort of thing doesn’t have many successful precedents in history.
If you can remove ‘consciousness’ and nothing changes, what have you done? Maybe the difficult answer to this mysterious question involves facing up to the fact that the mind is just a very complex, naturally arising system made up of physical parts. No magic, no special place in the grand scheme of the universe. Just a high-level, complex system composed of many low-level, simple, physical parts. Imagine what the world would be like if consciousness had already been erased, and we’re actually nothing but pretty smart survival machines made out of flesh and bone!
Unknown—I think we need to clear up our definitions of ‘incoherent’. Saying that a zombie world is incoherent doesn’t mean that one can’t visualise that world. It means that a world isomorphic to our own but ‘without consciousness’ is not different from our own in any measurable way. Hence the assertion that the the zombie world is interesting/useful is incoherent. Saying that the posulated ‘difference’ is beyond the realm of science is the religionist stance.
From Richard’s blog:
There’s no denying that the [zombie] world itself is possible, physically identical to our own, and yet lacking something of a mentalistic sort, however we end up describing it. And that’s enough to refute physicalism[.]
Again, please don’t base an argument, philosophical or no, on a ‘something’. Or at least say what you mean and call it a soul. We don’t understand consciousness, that is granted. But ‘something’ is a mysterious answer to a mysterious question. This sort of thing doesn’t have many successful precedents in history.
If you can remove ‘consciousness’ and nothing changes, what have you done? Maybe the difficult answer to this mysterious question involves facing up to the fact that the mind is just a very complex, naturally arising system made up of physical parts. No magic, no special place in the grand scheme of the universe. Just a high-level, complex system composed of many low-level, simple, physical parts. Imagine what the world would be like if consciousness had already been erased, and we’re actually nothing but pretty smart survival machines made out of flesh and bone!