On Fri, Apr 19, 2013 at 9:30 AM, Stathis Papaioannou <stath...@gmail.com>wrote:
> But you claim that it is impossible to conceive of consciousness > supervening on function. A religious person would claim that it > impossible to conceive of consciousness as residing anywhere other > than in the spiritual realm. Both your positions seem to essentially > be based on the argument from incredulity: see, this lump of coal is > inert and dead, how could anything derived from it possibly have > feelings? > > Craig's "theory" is essentially equivalent with explaining consciousness in terms of the religious 'soul'. He argues that "sense" is primary, and that the top-down causality of intention translates to the bottom-up causality of physics, and, crucially, that top-down intention is not computable, i.e. that it is not possible for such top-down intention to emerge in any kind of simulation, at any level. This is almost exactly the same thing as saying that what animates us is our god-given soul. Such stories exist in part to assuage the discomfort of uncertainty or existential angst, and stop any further inquiry by defining the fundamental mystery of existence in absolute terms. It is no different from saying that the way things are is God's will. Terren > -- > Stathis Papaioannou > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
