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Article 7347 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: lcarr@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (lincoln carr)
Subject: Re: We've Been Tricked- consciousness
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Date: Wed, 21 Oct 1992 06:24:00 GMT
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In article <iordonez.719617253@academ01> iordonez@academ01.mty.itesm.mx (Ivan Ordonez-Reinoso) writes:
>sparky@wixer.cactus.org (Timothy Sheridan) writes:
>
>>Since we cant tell if our aparent and undefined CONSCIOUSNESS is just a
>>confeused disunderstanding or ilusion, I propose that consciousness is mearly
>>a trick of the senses that any inteligent system could be easily fooled by.
>
>If consciousness is an illusion, who experiences the illusion? How can
>we, or any 'intelligent' system be fooled, or tricked, or cheated into
>believing something if we or the system are not conscious before? In
>fact, what is the meaning of having a belief without consciousness?
>
>--Ivan
>

It seems what you're saying, consciously or unconsciously, is
Descartes' "I think therefore I am," or "I am thinking, therefore I
exist."  I agree that this is the only statement that I know of that
survives hyperbolical doubt.  One can doubt anything, but the fact
that one doubts at all indicates existence, or what you are referring
to as consciousness.

However, there are some that try to argue around this by saying that
one only has the "feeling" of existence, or consciousness, but this
claim seems vacuous, since, if one "feels" anything, mustn't one
exist?  

How would everyone out on the net define consiousness?  I would start
by saying that consciousness is self-awareness, or apperception of
oneself.  Perhaps a good question in a Turing test would be "How do
you know that you exist?"



-- 
Lincoln R. Carr, Computer Scientist-Philosopher    lcarr@silver.ucs.indiana.edu
"Treat all rational autonomous moral agents, whether in the form of yourself
or another, never as means solely, but always as ends in themselves."
                  Immanuel Kant, from "Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals"


