From: Jef Allbright (jef@jefallbright.net)
Date: Sat Oct 12 2002 - 13:08:10 MDT
Why is that people can discuss this topic endlessly without progressing to
some common understanding?
As with other topics, it's because both sides are right -- within the
context that they are personally arguing/defending. Wait, I'm not promoting
relativism here, I'm saying that both sides are talking about their
experience of different parts of the elephant. (
http://www.wordfocus.com/word-act-blindmen.html )
As with all apparent paradox, the solution is to "widen back" to a broader
viewpoint that encompasses more of the subject under discussion.
Some people see self-identity as essentially a label used to describe a
particular pattern rippling through time and space. To them, it doesn't
matter which atoms compose this pattern at any particular moment, and the
previous history of those atoms doesn't matter either. This viewpoint might
be expressed as "a difference that makes no difference is not a difference
at all."
Others feel self-identity is intrinsic, and from their viewpoint this is
confirmed beyond a doubt by their experience. Having no experience of
conciousness separate from container, they clearly sense wrongness in the
idea that self-identity might be as fluid as others suggest. The instinct
for self preservation feeds the certain feeling that something would be
lost, and life experience supports this.
Rather than proceed to argue my point of view, which is certainly the more
enlightened, <grin>, I will leave my offering at this point, hopeful that it
may contribute to understanding, but also aware that it may add new points
of disagreement.
- Jef
> Does it? How could it matter to you if you can't even tell if it
> happened to you last night? In my humble opinion if something
> remembers being Damien Broderick then Damien Broderick is not dead.
> It's like those "horror" stories where at the end you discover the
> hero is really dead, perhaps I'm missing a few vital neurons but even
> as kid watching them on the old Twilight Zone I could never figure
> out where the horror was in that. I'd be astounded and delighted to
> discover I was dead because the very fact that I could discover
> anything would mean death was not all it was cracked up to be; but
> maybe I'm crazy because almost nobody seems to understand what I'm
> talking about.
>
> John K Clark jonkc@att,net
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