From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!torn!cs.utexas.edu!qt.cs.utexas.edu!yale.edu!think.com!ames!agate!doc.ic.ac.uk!uknet!edcastle!cam Tue Nov 24 10:51:35 EST 1992
Article 7605 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: cam@castle.ed.ac.uk (Chris Malcolm)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: definition of consciousness
Message-ID: <28024@castle.ed.ac.uk>
Date: 11 Nov 92 23:07:20 GMT
References: <tim.720580709@giaeb> <1992Nov2.195050.1296@wixer.cactus.org> <tim.721445310@giaeb>
Organization: Edinburgh University
Lines: 33

In article <tim.721445310@giaeb> tim@giaeb.cc.monash.edu.au (Tim Roberts) writes:

>For the first case, I suggest an examination of siamese twins, or twins who
>have never been separated.  Many such cases exist, and I would claim tend to
>support this hypothesis.

True. Some twins who have spent their lives together behave like one
person, claim to think as one, and prefer to be treated as one person.

>For the second case, take people with damaged brains, especially those who
>have (for one reason or another) so-called 'split brains'.  Behaviour patterns
>here seem again to support the hypothesis.

True. In some circumstances two different consciousnesses, with
different perceptions, and different purposes, can be discerned.

>If you think this is hugely counter-intuitive, you're right.  I don't like
>admitting any more than you do that there is no clear distinction between me
>and everything else.  But if there isn't, then consciousness becomes so
>changed as a concept that it's hardly worth using the term any more.  Rather
>like phlogiston, in fact.

You seem to argue that the changes in the concept of consciousness
necessary to encompass these phenomena are so unpalatable that you
prefer to heave the bathwater, baby and all, out of the window. I'm
very sorry to hear this. Have you consulted a philosophical therapist
about this problem? :-) I suggest a reading of Dennett's
"Consciousness Explained", which spends a lot of time on this problem,
most fruitfully, IMHO.
-- 
Chris Malcolm    cam@uk.ac.ed.aifh          +44 (0)31 650 3085
Department of Artificial Intelligence,    Edinburgh University
5 Forrest Hill, Edinburgh, EH1 2QL, UK                DoD #205


