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Article 7577 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: burt@aupair.cs.athabascau.ca (Burt Voorhees)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: A linguistical reformulation of the problem of consciousness
Message-ID: <burt.721435452@aupair.cs.athabascau.ca>
Date: 10 Nov 92 22:44:12 GMT
References: <iordonez.721351866@academ01>
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iordonez@academ01.mty.itesm.mx (Ivan Ordonez-Reinoso) writes:

>Everything in the Universe is in third person (that, it, there, etc).
>Everything but a very little part, that is in the first person, I. What
>makes the difference? What makes a part of the universe become a first
>person? Explain it in terms of third persons alone.

>In other words, Why am I?

>--Ivan Ordonez

I would say that this is backwards.  Why not start out with the thought
that everything in the universe is in the first person.  How did a third
(or second) person arise out of this?

In other words, suppoose that we start with awareness, pure and
undifferentiated.  (See the essay "On Having No Head" in Dennett &
Hofstader (eds) _The Minds I_).  How is it that this awareness
differentiates out to become an awareness of self residing in a non-self
world?  And what mental forms are necessary and sufficient for us to
think accurately about this process?
bv


