I don’t understand your question. Do you actually dispute that pleasure could serve as the foundation for a consistent set of preferences? Or are you picturing “hedons” as much more concrete than I am?
For the sake of argument, I’ll argue the opposing view:
I don’t believe anyone “feels” anything. People act as if they have preferences and talk about subjective experiences because that is what their brain structures do, not because subjective experiences actually exist. It is perfectly normal for evolved organisms to talk about “the meaning of life”, but these organisms are only patterns in a formal system. In other words, “consciousness”, “self-awareness”, and “meaning” are only patterns in physical brains. There is no “mind” having experiences anywhere. A “ghost”—a mind without a corresponding physical structure—is nonsensical because a mind is merely its pattern in matter.
It does not matter if the patterns representing a brain are computed using pencil-and-paper (see the short story “A Conversation With Einstein’s Brain” by Douglas Hofstadter, in which a choose-your-own-adventure book tries to argue that it has conscious experience).
Hedons—conscious experiences of enjoyment—do not exist. I am aware that I am just a pattern of a brain in a formal system, and not a “person” in the sense of actually having experiences.
In other words, people are all philosophical zombies. Prove me wrong, if you can...
I don’t understand your question. Do you actually dispute that pleasure could serve as the foundation for a consistent set of preferences? Or are you picturing “hedons” as much more concrete than I am?
I assume hedons, a type of qualia, exist.
For the sake of argument, I’ll argue the opposing view:
I don’t believe anyone “feels” anything. People act as if they have preferences and talk about subjective experiences because that is what their brain structures do, not because subjective experiences actually exist. It is perfectly normal for evolved organisms to talk about “the meaning of life”, but these organisms are only patterns in a formal system. In other words, “consciousness”, “self-awareness”, and “meaning” are only patterns in physical brains. There is no “mind” having experiences anywhere. A “ghost”—a mind without a corresponding physical structure—is nonsensical because a mind is merely its pattern in matter.
It does not matter if the patterns representing a brain are computed using pencil-and-paper (see the short story “A Conversation With Einstein’s Brain” by Douglas Hofstadter, in which a choose-your-own-adventure book tries to argue that it has conscious experience).
Hedons—conscious experiences of enjoyment—do not exist. I am aware that I am just a pattern of a brain in a formal system, and not a “person” in the sense of actually having experiences.
In other words, people are all philosophical zombies. Prove me wrong, if you can...
Its a sceptical hypothesis. As such it, neither admits disproof, nor persuades.