re: #568 LudwigVanQuixote

Consciousness is a Pandora’s box. Now we’re entering into Philosophy of Mind—one of my favorite subjects. Before I go any further, I want to strongly recommend two mind-blowing lecture series from the Teaching Company: “Philosophy of Mind,” by John Searle, and “Consciousness and Its Implications,” by Daniel N. Robinson. No matter how vast your knowledge of philosophy, you’ll come out of them enlightened, having learned much that was new. The two professors are heavy weights in their fields.

Anyway, I am convinced that Cartesian Dualism sums up the nature of consciousness acurately overall. The realm of physical reality is ruled by physical laws. Its features are empirical, measurable, reductionist. The mind is another realm entirely. What makes the colors you see right now what they feel like? What makes pain feel like pain? You could learn all there is to know about neurological networks and interactions in the brain, understand the central nervous system inside and out,.. yet that knowledge doesn’t account for any of our feelings and mental processes, in the unique way we experience them. I do not mean to suggest that consciousness is independent of physical reality—if you lobotomize me, my consciousness will wither. But its ontological nature belongs to a different category than the physical world does. No one can run experiments on what goes on in your mind, nor than anyone scientifically test whether you DO have a mind… I can perfectly imagine a zombie, physically and functionally similar to myself, yet devoid of consciousness. Only the thinking, feeling, conscious mind directly knows its own existence—and I don’t mean to sound solipsistic about the issue.