Robin - ‘I’m always amazed at what philosophers think they can see merely by “understanding the terms.” Such analysis may well tell us a lot about what we often assume, but I am skeptical that it can tell us as much as philosophers think about what is actually possible vs. only apparently possible.’
What kind of possibility are you talking about? Philosophers will grant that reason/understanding alone can’t tell us what’s physically possible. That’s the domain of science. But logical possibility is simply defined as what can be coherently understood, i.e. without implicit self-contradiction, so I’m not sure how your objection could possibly work here. Unless, perhaps, you meant to express skepticism that philosophers really understand the terms they claim to understand? (If it turns out that all our claims are really based on misunderstandings, then they wouldn’t even establish logical possibility. But that’s precisely because we—like Eliezer’s imagined nutcase philosopher who doesn’t understand that hands are logically reducible to fingers etc. -- would be lacking the prerequisite understanding to justify our conclusions.)
Dan—I don’t know what “emergent property” or “complex system” are supposed to mean, but Unknown got “bridging law” just right. Granted, it’s one thing to assert there’s a bridging law, and another to actually provide one. Eliezer grants the same point with regards to reductions. The difference between our views is that he thinks the reduction is logically necessary; that there is no sense to be made of the idea of a ‘zombie’ world physically identical to ours but lacking consciousness. I think that’s plainly false. There’s nothing incoherent about the idea of zombies. So the admitted link between the physical and phenomenal facts is merely contingent (taking the form of a natural law, rather than a reductive analysis).
P.S. You’ve been reading too many straw men. I certainly don’t think “there’s a soul floating around communing with the brain”. Follow the links in my earlier comment.
Robin - ‘I’m always amazed at what philosophers think they can see merely by “understanding the terms.” Such analysis may well tell us a lot about what we often assume, but I am skeptical that it can tell us as much as philosophers think about what is actually possible vs. only apparently possible.’
What kind of possibility are you talking about? Philosophers will grant that reason/understanding alone can’t tell us what’s physically possible. That’s the domain of science. But logical possibility is simply defined as what can be coherently understood, i.e. without implicit self-contradiction, so I’m not sure how your objection could possibly work here. Unless, perhaps, you meant to express skepticism that philosophers really understand the terms they claim to understand? (If it turns out that all our claims are really based on misunderstandings, then they wouldn’t even establish logical possibility. But that’s precisely because we—like Eliezer’s imagined nutcase philosopher who doesn’t understand that hands are logically reducible to fingers etc. -- would be lacking the prerequisite understanding to justify our conclusions.)
Dan—I don’t know what “emergent property” or “complex system” are supposed to mean, but Unknown got “bridging law” just right. Granted, it’s one thing to assert there’s a bridging law, and another to actually provide one. Eliezer grants the same point with regards to reductions. The difference between our views is that he thinks the reduction is logically necessary; that there is no sense to be made of the idea of a ‘zombie’ world physically identical to ours but lacking consciousness. I think that’s plainly false. There’s nothing incoherent about the idea of zombies. So the admitted link between the physical and phenomenal facts is merely contingent (taking the form of a natural law, rather than a reductive analysis).
P.S. You’ve been reading too many straw men. I certainly don’t think “there’s a soul floating around communing with the brain”. Follow the links in my earlier comment.