From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!psych.toronto.edu!michael Fri Jan 31 10:26:54 EST 1992
Article 3256 of comp.ai.philosophy:
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Path: newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!psych.toronto.edu!michael
>From: michael@psych.toronto.edu (Michael Gemar)
Subject: Re: Strong AI and Panpsychism
Message-ID: <1992Jan29.162643.29519@psych.toronto.edu>
Organization: Department of Psychology, University of Toronto
References: <1992Jan27.155128.5910@oracorp.com> <1992Jan28.004208.27238@psych.toronto.edu> <1992Jan28.165322.25735@colorado.edu>
Date: Wed, 29 Jan 1992 16:26:43 GMT

In article <1992Jan28.165322.25735@colorado.edu> tesar@tigger.Colorado.EDU (Bruce Tesar) writes:
>In article <1992Jan28.004208.27238@psych.toronto.edu> michael@psych.toronto.edu (Michael Gemar) writes:
>>
>... lots of stuff on Panpsychism and AI deleted ...
>>
>>However, I think that you point out one *very* good reason above to 
>>believe that consciousness is *not* merely descriptive, and that the
>>moral consequences if it is.  If there is no fact of the matter whether
>>something is conscious, then morality (or at least most versions of it)
>>goes out the window.  Why should I treat *you* as conscious, if that is
>>merely a "descriptive" term?  And therefore, why should I treat you as any
>>more worthy of ethical consideration than a rock, or a roomfull of air, or
>>a computer?
>>
>    You could start by explaining why I should treat *you* as more worthy
>of ethical consideration than a rock, given that you are conscious and
>the rock is not. What is so important about being conscious?

Well, to give the argument from authority, consciousness (or some variant
on it, such as the ability to have plans, goals, desires) has been seen as
the main feature of entities worthy of moral concern since probably the
beginning of moral philosophy.  To give the argument from common sense,
if you *do* believe in morality, what other distinctions would you draw?
(Of course, if you don't believe in the worth of ethics, then this exchange
is meaningless.)

- michael
 



