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Article 7406 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: Tue, 27 Oct 1992 20:10:35 GMT
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In article <BwqppI.IsM@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca> pindor@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca (Andrzej Pindor) writes:

>Case of an infant seems to me to be a good example of the difficulties in
>establishing where the consciousness begins. You would presumably agree that
>a fertalized human egg is not conscious and that at a certain age a child is
>definitely conscious. Now, do you see a clear moment where there may be 
>a change of state from a lack of consciousness to its presence? Even if you
>are ready to suggest such a moment, are you sure it is unambigous? And that
>most people will agree with you? The only way out I can see from this dilemma
>(short of a fundamentalist solution) is to assume that the consciousness
>is formed gradually.
>

The same kind of difficulty arises when one asks the same kinds of
questions about rationality.  If I want to support, say, minimum
requirements for consciousness, it is well within the scope of my
imagination to conceive that, in the course of evolution, that there
were beings just below these minima and that their progeny developed
just above these minima.  There doesn't need to be any dramatic
breakthrough, just a point at which the minima are met.  This would
support the idea that minima of consciousness could be defined and
that there is a point at which something could be called definitely
conscious without saying that consciousness must come in degrees.




-- 
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"


