Suppose scientists one day solve the problem of consciousness according to one of these definitions, in a way that can be readily understood by any reasonably intelligent interested layman. I think it’s quite likely that many adherents of other definitions would then come around and say, “ah, great job, they finally figured it out! This is exactly what I meant by ‘consciousness’ all along.”. For example, if an explanation of the first-person subjective experience of pleasure and pain (no. 6) were available, it would probably explain perception-of-perception (no. 7) as well, or at least explain why that seemed like a reasonable interpretation of consciousness.
If so, it would support the conclusion that most people are in fact referring to the same phenomenon (and it is this phenomenon that they find morally valuable), and the fact that they refer to it in different terms is mostly a function of the general unsolvedness of the problems surrounding consciousness, unclarity of terminology, etc...
Then there is an alliance not around the conflation of properly distinct concepts, but around the resistance to over-specification of something which is as yet too unclear to specify to such an extent. Very speculatively we might suppose this is an instance of a general social process that lets debate take place at the proper level of specificity, without hindering participants from forming and using their own tentative definitions.
Suppose scientists one day solve the problem of consciousness according to one of these definitions, in a way that can be readily understood by any reasonably intelligent interested layman. I think it’s quite likely that many adherents of other definitions would then come around and say, “ah, great job, they finally figured it out! This is exactly what I meant by ‘consciousness’ all along.”. For example, if an explanation of the first-person subjective experience of pleasure and pain (no. 6) were available, it would probably explain perception-of-perception (no. 7) as well, or at least explain why that seemed like a reasonable interpretation of consciousness.
If so, it would support the conclusion that most people are in fact referring to the same phenomenon (and it is this phenomenon that they find morally valuable), and the fact that they refer to it in different terms is mostly a function of the general unsolvedness of the problems surrounding consciousness, unclarity of terminology, etc...
Then there is an alliance not around the conflation of properly distinct concepts, but around the resistance to over-specification of something which is as yet too unclear to specify to such an extent. Very speculatively we might suppose this is an instance of a general social process that lets debate take place at the proper level of specificity, without hindering participants from forming and using their own tentative definitions.