Dan—We have different projects; I’m not trying to “fix the counterintuitiveness of consciousness.” I’m interested in whether it is in principle susceptible to physical reduction. (We can answer these sorts of questions by understanding alone. I don’t need to do science in order to appreciate the conditional that if physical investigation reveals particles that play such-and-such a role, then objects such as hands will be reducible to said arrangements of particles. There is no coherently conceivable ‘hand-zombie’ world, analogous to the phenomenal-zombie world, that is identical to ours in all matters of fundamental physics, but somehow lacking in hands.)
Incidentally, I agree that the human brain is capable of amazing computational feats. There are many aspects of its physical functioning that I don’t yet understand, though I’m confident future science will make further progress here. None of that is relevant to the present discussion.
Yeah, our projects are actually exactly the same. We’re just using completely different tools and/or words. For instance, I am still waiting to figure out how “understanding”, “natural law” and “phenomenal” things can be given meaningful weight above voodoo, karmic rebirth, or dreamtime. Being better tailored to our collective cultural background than the alternatives would be is about all it seems to have, as is.
I’m also baffled by the statement that a question about whether the mind can be reduced to the brain could not be informed by the science of how the brain works. Really? I need your tools. I would love to know how things work without having to first understand how they work. I’d also like to mention that the zombie thought experiment has its conclusion embedded in its premises. In order to accept that such zombies are logically coherent, you need to already think that “qualia” have some magical nonphysical quality. It’s the definition of circular reasoning, and there’s nothing to establish its validity over “hand-zombies” except that it’s more appealing to the person thinking it.
Dan—We have different projects; I’m not trying to “fix the counterintuitiveness of consciousness.” I’m interested in whether it is in principle susceptible to physical reduction. (We can answer these sorts of questions by understanding alone. I don’t need to do science in order to appreciate the conditional that if physical investigation reveals particles that play such-and-such a role, then objects such as hands will be reducible to said arrangements of particles. There is no coherently conceivable ‘hand-zombie’ world, analogous to the phenomenal-zombie world, that is identical to ours in all matters of fundamental physics, but somehow lacking in hands.)
Incidentally, I agree that the human brain is capable of amazing computational feats. There are many aspects of its physical functioning that I don’t yet understand, though I’m confident future science will make further progress here. None of that is relevant to the present discussion.
Yeah, our projects are actually exactly the same. We’re just using completely different tools and/or words. For instance, I am still waiting to figure out how “understanding”, “natural law” and “phenomenal” things can be given meaningful weight above voodoo, karmic rebirth, or dreamtime. Being better tailored to our collective cultural background than the alternatives would be is about all it seems to have, as is.
I’m also baffled by the statement that a question about whether the mind can be reduced to the brain could not be informed by the science of how the brain works. Really? I need your tools. I would love to know how things work without having to first understand how they work. I’d also like to mention that the zombie thought experiment has its conclusion embedded in its premises. In order to accept that such zombies are logically coherent, you need to already think that “qualia” have some magical nonphysical quality. It’s the definition of circular reasoning, and there’s nothing to establish its validity over “hand-zombies” except that it’s more appealing to the person thinking it.