Where’s the attribution of magic? You just have a different semantics of “conscious”, “pain”, “pleasure” and so on than they do. They hold that it applies to a narrower range of things, you hold that it applies to a wider range. Why is one semantics more “magical thinking” than the other?
Suppose we’re arguing about “muscle cars”, and I insist that a “muscle car” by definition has to have an internal combustion engine. You say that electric cars can be muscle cars too. Our friend says that neither definition is true nor false, and that the historical record of muscle cars and their enthusiasts is insufficient to settle the matter. Our friend might be right, in which case we both may be guilty of magical thinking—but not just one of us. Our friend might be wrong, in which case one of us may be mistaken, but that’s different.
Where’s the attribution of magic? You just have a different semantics of “conscious”, “pain”, “pleasure” and so on than they do. They hold that it applies to a narrower range of things, you hold that it applies to a wider range. Why is one semantics more “magical thinking” than the other?
Suppose we’re arguing about “muscle cars”, and I insist that a “muscle car” by definition has to have an internal combustion engine. You say that electric cars can be muscle cars too. Our friend says that neither definition is true nor false, and that the historical record of muscle cars and their enthusiasts is insufficient to settle the matter. Our friend might be right, in which case we both may be guilty of magical thinking—but not just one of us. Our friend might be wrong, in which case one of us may be mistaken, but that’s different.