From: Rob Harris Cen-IT (Rob.Harris@bournemouth.gov.uk)
Date: Thu Jun 24 1999 - 04:49:03 MDT
> This "hard problem" phrase is really just an ambit claim for high
> intellectual ground, ie., "oh yes, but you biopsych's only study the
> non-hard problem ..."
>
Crap. If the world's leading minds are that puerile, then we're all screwed.
Chalmers made the distinction between the "hard" and "easy" problems to
dispel the tendency for people to declare consciousness explained on the
basis of psychological/traditional science analyses which never actually
address directly the thing we're all interested in: the sensation of being,
experience.
He called the former "easy" because we can use the tools of contemporary
science to explain them - not because any fool could do it. He labelled the
analysis and explanation of conscious experience "hard" because contemporary
science can't touch the concept with a barge pole. It's just not measurable
or observable by a second person. Any extrapolation of Chalmers' words for
use in primate playground superiority battles is certainly not science.
Rob.
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