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From: vicc@ucc.su.oz.au (Vic Cinc)
Subject: Re: Is CONSCIOUSNESS continuous? discrete? quantized?
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References: <rudgers.70.0013F197@grove.ufl.edu> <rudgers.79.00006734@grove.ufl.edu> <D6u3JC.I9w@gpu.utcc.utoronto.ca> <rudgers.92.00004679@grove.ufl.edu> <D6zH7t.L53@gpu.utcc.utoronto.ca>
Date: Wed, 19 Apr 1995 03:39:46 GMT
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Andrzej Pindor (pindor@gpu.utcc.utoronto.ca) wrote:
: b a rudgers <rudgers@grove.ufl.edu> wrote:
: >pindor@gpu.utcc.utoronto.ca (Andrzej Pindor) writes:
: >
: >>Hardly surprising since a sleeping person is not conscious.
: >        *****
: >> In case of consciousnes the only accessible(observable) effect of it is 
: >>behavior. 
: >
: >The sense in which we are using "conscious" ought to be in reference to 
: >consciousness.  We say that the sleeping person is unconscious and not 
: >non-conscious.  The distinction between what is unconscious and what is 
: >non-conscious is a rather important one I believe.  Things which are 
: >unconscious are only that way temporarily; they are things which have been 
: >previously or may be later conscious.  To me it seems that the only 
: >sort of thing to which we can ascribe being unconsious (or being 
: >conscious for that matter) is something with consciousness.  If something 
: >does not have consciousness then it will never be unconscious (the toaster is 
: >unconscious?  Shirrly you jest) it will always be non-conscious.  

: I find your distinction between "unconscious" and "non-conscious" very
: artificial and hard to justify. How about a person who, because of an accident,
: becomes a "living vegetable"? How is the fact that he/she was once conscious 
: relevent to whether this person is "non-conscious" or "unconscious"?
: Is a fact that this person may or may not recover relevent either?
: Again the problems seem to be due to a vary vague notion of what consciousness
: is. If you do not treat is as a yes/no thing, a lot of these problems are
: easier to tackle.


If you practice meditation you will find that you indeed are
conscious all the way through sleep. As for someone who has
turned into a vegetable, they are still conscious
but not of their senses. people in coma still dream, some
people under general anestetic can recall what the surgeons were
talking about.

Consciousness has many different levels, some very subtle
like that through sleep...  when someone has lost _all_ consciousness
they are dead. 

Vic

+-------------------------------------------------------------+
 Vic Cinc, ASDC pty ltd                 vicc@extro.ucc.su.oz.au
smail: GPO Box 1660 Sydney NSW 2001 AUSTRALIA

"The deepest motive for materialism...
is simply a terror of consciousness." J. R. Searle.

