Week 7 Consciousness

What consciousness denotes

Differentiation

The distinction between creature consciousness and mental state consciousness is important because it allows us to differentiate between having the capacity for consciousness and the specific content of that consciousness at any given moment. A creature can be conscious in the general sense (creature consciousness) without necessarily being conscious of any particular thing at a specific time.

Example

Blind sighted people.
Fabian: Brain activity difference when perceiving info between normal and blind people?

  • Ans: There is. But let's avoid going neuro-technical

David Chalmers

Chalmers on the hard problem of consciousness
Facing Up to the Problem of Consciousness (Chalmers, 1995)

David Chalmers

Duplicate brain doesn't lead to duplicating consciousness. (Julius: If we copy Vivian's brain, ...)

He argues that duplicating the brain does not necessarily lead to duplicating consciousness. This is because consciousness has subjective, qualitative aspects ("qualia") that are not captured by the physical structure of the brain alone.

  • "zombie argument" by Chalmers

The conceivability argument

Important

Notion of a Philosophical Zombie

Zombies (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Week 6 Physicalism#The Coke Machine Example and Functionalism
A philosophical zombie is a hypothetical being that is physically indistinguishable from a normal human being but lacks conscious experience. By definition, there is "nothing it is like" to be a zombie. They behave and function just like us, but they have no inner subjective experience, no qualia, no "what-it-is-likeness" associated with their mental states.

P1. Conceivability Conceivable that physically identical brains, different with regard to conscious mental states, i.e. zombies are conceivable
P2. Link Everything that is conceivable, is possible

Abstract

Logically what is the difference between conceivable and probable or possible?
While there is a narrow sense of "possible" that coincides with "conceivable," usually being possible is a more demanding condition. To be possible, a state of affairs must not merely be conceivable, but must be consistent with what we know about this world (e.g., the laws of nature). A puddle of water turning into a human being, an animal living forever, a daytrip to another galaxy -- these are conceivable, but not possible.

conceivable

Conceivable vs. Possible

在哲学上，conceivable 和 possible 的含义和区别在于它们与 可能性模态 的关系。

Conceivable 指的是 可以在心灵中构想或想象的事物。它指的是一种认知上的可能性，即我们能够理解或想象某事的存在或发生。

Possible 指的是 在逻辑上或形而上学上可能存在或发生的事物。它指的是一种客观上的可能性，即某事不受逻辑或物理定律的限制。

因此，所有 possible 的事物都是 conceivable 的，但并非所有 conceivable 的事物都是 possible 的。例如，我们可以想象一个独角兽，但独角兽在逻辑上或形而上学上不可能存在。

在哲学讨论中，区分 conceivable 和 possible 至关重要，因为它可以帮助我们区分哪些是我们可以想象的，哪些是实际可能存在的。

What is possible depends on what is in fact the case, but thought transcend all over it.

The knowledge argument

Thought experiment by Frank Jackson

See Week 6 Office Hour

Frank Jackson

"Knowledge argument" against physicalism. 
Even if someone knew everything physical about color perception (Over physical knowledge like wave length, artistically, etc.), they would still learn something new upon experiencing color for the first time.

  • The subjective, qualitative experience of color, which cannot be reduced to physical facts.
  • "Epiphenomenal Qualia" (1982): His arguments about qualia and their relationship to physical states.

P1. Surprise Mary, a neuroscientist, has complete physical knowledge of color perception including knowledge of the physical processes in the brain, the visual system, and the physics of light that are involved in color vision. But she is still surprised by consciously seeing color for the first time.
P2. Extra fact Mary's surprise is best explained by her learning a new fact about conscigous color vision when she sees color for the first time.
C. There are some non-physical facts about conscious color vision.

Question: Will knowing some basic colors prepare Mary in some way for the surprise from a new color?

Prank Water: H2O vs. XYZ