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Article 7429 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, 28 Oct 1992 22:34:49 GMT
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In article <burt.720224034@aupair.cs.athabascau.ca> burt@aupair.cs.athabascau.ca (Burt Voorhees) writes:
>Arn't you confusing container and content here?  When people refer to
>consciousness, as in describing their consciousness, there is the
>issue of intentionality--everybody tends to describe the content of
>their consciousness as if it were their consciousness.  But with
>regard to consciousness, the lights are either on or off.  There
>may, of course, be a dimmer switch...
>Problem is, there is still not an adaquate definition of consciousness
>so we all go around in circles talking about what _we_ think it is
>and wondering why others don't agree.
>bv

I agree that we go around in circles because of differing definitions.
However, the same could most probably be said of a lot of scientific
and philosophical terms when they first started seeing use.  For
example, didn't physicists at some point have to decide upon a common
vocabulary in order to communicate with one another?  Were the
definitions of their terms always obvious?  I see no difference in
trying to argue out a definition for the word "consciousness" and
arguing out a definition for the word "atom."


-- 
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"


