From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!torn!utgpu!pindor Sat Oct 24 20:44:59 EDT 1992
Article 7385 of comp.ai.philosophy:
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Path: newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!torn!utgpu!pindor
>From: pindor@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca (Andrzej Pindor)
Subject: Re: We've Been Tricked- consciousness
Message-ID: <BwL6LM.CL1@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca>
Organization: UTCS Public Access
References: <nijmanm.719672415@hpas7> <BwHA6K.D33@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu> <nijmanm.719758335@hpas7> <BwJuuE.DpD@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu>
Date: Fri, 23 Oct 1992 18:12:57 GMT

In article <BwJuuE.DpD@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu> lcarr@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (lincoln carr) writes:
...........................
>
>Although my own thoughts on this matter are by no means clear and
>distinct and by no means set in stone, I suppose that what I'm
>reaching for is the equation of consciousness with apperception.  When
>one asks "What is consciousness?"  it would seem that things like
>intelligence or reason, if these are even well-defined terms, would be
>thrown out, for surely there are many subrational beings that one
>would putatively describe as "conscious," e.g., an infant.  If

Is an infant unquestionably conscious? From which moment? When it emerges
from a womb? From the moment it is cut-off from its mother? from the moment
it starts crying? 
In fact it seems to me (based on observation of infants) that an infant,
at least a very young one, is not conscious in any sense close to what we
call 'being conscious' in a case of a 'normal' (healthy ?) human being.
It does not seem any more conscious than, for instance, an infant ape or even
an infant dog. It is only in the process of development, through interaction
with environment, does it gradually achieve a state of consciousness,
presumably a s a result of developments in its brain capacities. I wonder
what evidence the people who talk about consciousenss being a two-valued 
category (yes or no) have for a consciousness of very young infants?
Except for a blind belief, an idea of integer number of conscioussneses (?)
in the Universe seems untenable.

Andrzej Pindor

PS. By 'a blind belief' I mean the one not amenable to verification.
-- 
Andrzej Pindor
University of Toronto
Computing Services
pindor@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca


