From: Dan Fabulich (daniel.fabulich@yale.edu)
Date: Sun Dec 12 1999 - 19:16:42 MST
'What is your name?' 'Damien Broderick.' 'Well, in THAT case...':
> Uh huh.
>
> Under a certain pressure from empirical investigation, I think, `think' and
> Think that this sort of distinction just folds up.
Ah, the venerable "aw, come on!" response. When the going gets tough, the
tough get satirical. Dennett has a great line on this in Quining Qualia:
"Today, no biologist would dream of supposing that it was quite all right
to appeal to some innocent concept of elan vital. [...] What are qualia,
*exactly*? This obstreperous query is dismissed by one author ("only half
in jest") by invoking Louis Armstrong's legendary reply when asked what
jazz was: "If you got to ask, you ain't never gonna get to know." (Block,
1978, p.281) This amusing tactic perfectly illustrates the presumption
that is my target. If I succeed in my task [of showing that qualia do not
exist], this move, which passes muster in most circles today, will look as
quaint and insupportable as a jocular appeal to the ludicrousness of a
living thing--a living thing, mind you!--doubting the existence of elan
vital."
> But I know that if stem cells were injected into my brain, and tweaked just
> right to grow back some relevant cortex, and I was trained to use it, it's
> possible that depth would abruptly `pop out' for me. I'd have new qualia
> that are inconceivable to me right now, strictly speaking. Does that make
> me a partial zombie? Not. (But then I'd say that, wouldn't I? Throw stones
> at the zombie, he can't duck!)
And this shows you have qualia... how? I'm saying we're ALL "zombies,"
that NONE of us have ANY qualia. You're no half zombie, you're 100% FULL
zombie, just like me.
-Dan
-unless you love someone-
-nothing else makes any sense-
e.e. cummings
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