Ok, well given that responses to pain/pleasure can equally be explained by more direct evolutionary reasons, I’m not sure that the inference from action to experience is very useful. Why would you ever connect these things with expereince rather than other, more directly measurable things?
But the point is definitely not that I have a magic bullet or easy solution: it’s that I think there’s a real and urgent question—are they conscious—which I don’t see how information about responses etc. can answer. Compare to the cases of containment, or heat, or life—all the urgent questions are already resolved before those issues are even raised.
As I say, the best way I know of to answer “is it conscious?” about X is to compare X to other systems about which I have confidence-levels about its consciousness and look for commonalities and distinctions.
If there are alternative approaches that you think give us more reliable answers, I’d love to hear about them.
I have no reliable answers! And I have low meta-confidence levels (in that it seems clear to me that people and most other creatures are conscious but I have no confidence in why I think this)
If the Dennett position still sees this as a complete bafflement but thinks it will be resolved with the so-called ‘soft’ problem, I have less of an issue than I thought I did. Though I’d still regard the view that the issue will become clear one of hope rather than evidence.
Ok, well given that responses to pain/pleasure can equally be explained by more direct evolutionary reasons, I’m not sure that the inference from action to experience is very useful. Why would you ever connect these things with expereince rather than other, more directly measurable things?
But the point is definitely not that I have a magic bullet or easy solution: it’s that I think there’s a real and urgent question—are they conscious—which I don’t see how information about responses etc. can answer. Compare to the cases of containment, or heat, or life—all the urgent questions are already resolved before those issues are even raised.
As I say, the best way I know of to answer “is it conscious?” about X is to compare X to other systems about which I have confidence-levels about its consciousness and look for commonalities and distinctions.
If there are alternative approaches that you think give us more reliable answers, I’d love to hear about them.
I have no reliable answers! And I have low meta-confidence levels (in that it seems clear to me that people and most other creatures are conscious but I have no confidence in why I think this)
If the Dennett position still sees this as a complete bafflement but thinks it will be resolved with the so-called ‘soft’ problem, I have less of an issue than I thought I did. Though I’d still regard the view that the issue will become clear one of hope rather than evidence.