David, Thank you David for helping me think. I don't know about anybody else, but your questions certainly tend to my edification. I am going to take them for coffee and try to answer them, if only for my self.
You are VERY, VERY kind. NIck On Sat, Feb 4, 2023 at 8:46 AM Prof David West <profw...@fastmail.fm> wrote: > The eloquence and perspicacity of Professor Thompson has convinced me to > become an *Experience* monist. In my naive sophomoric enthusiasm I have > set about writing THE definitive work on *Experience*. But I have a few > questions ... > > 1) Is an *Experience* a whole or a composite? I.e., (scent of > cinnamon)—(heat of oven)—(grandmother's smile) OR (scent of cinnamon) + > (heat of oven) + (grandmothers smile)? Another analogy a single photograph > or a Photoshopped collage? > 1A) If an *Experience* is is a composite- there must be 'atomic' > *Experience* from which it is composed. Is it possible to *Experience* > and "atomic *Experience*" in isolation? > > 2) Does an *Experience* have duration, or is each *Experience* akin to a > frame of a film and continuity simply an artifact of being presented at > some rate; e.g., 30 frames per nanosecond? > > 3) Can *Experiences* be differentiated as "potential" and "actual?" To > illustrate: I turn on the camera on my phone and images pass through the > lens and appear on the screen, but a photograph does not come into > existence until I press the shutter button. Does something similar happen > with experience? They are potential until I "press the conscious awareness > button" at which point they become actual? > > 4) Can *Experiences* be categorized? To borrow vocabulary (somewhat > tortured( from Peter Sjostedt-Hughes' pentad of perception; > > - *Experience* grounded in/originating from the spatio-temporal > environment (Sensed Experience) > - *Experience* of an atemporal quality, e.g., color or scent > (Perceived Experience) > - An *Experience* partly caused by an external physicality—e.g., > motion of molecules partly causative of the *Experience* of heat > (Ecto-Physical Experience) > - An *Experience* that is partly caused by an internal > physicality—e.g., synapses firing in the brain (Endo-Physical Experience) > - *Experiences* not grounded in/originating from the spatio-temporal > environment, e.g., imaginations (Demeteption Experience) > - A sixth, of my own, a variation of Endo-Physical, where the internal > physicality is "disrupted," e.g., by taking a drug. > > 5) Does *Experience* 'exist' apart from an experiencer? > 5A) if not, how can we have "common experiences" > 5B) if yes, do we not have a faux monism, with two metaphysical > things: experience and experiencer? > > 6) Do *Experiences* persist? Perhaps as memories? > 6A) If yes, what exactly is the difference between an > *Experience*-in-"memory" > and one "being experienced?" Analogy to a computer program executing and > the same program stored on disk. > > > I would have asked Professor Thompson these questions, but I fear he would > have dismissed them as "tending not to edification." > > davew > > > -. --- - / ...- .- .-.. .. -.. / -- --- .-. ... . / -.-. --- -.. . > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom > https://bit.ly/virtualfriam > to (un)subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ > archives: 5/2017 thru present > https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/ > 1/2003 thru 6/2021 http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/ >
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