lew@ihuxr.UUCP (10/07/83)
Michael Massimilla informs us that consciousness and self-awareness are ILLUSIONS. This is like saying "It's all in your mind." As Nietzsche said, "One sometimes remains faithful to a cause simply because its opponents do not cease to be insipid." Lew Mammel, Jr. ihuxr!lew
norm@ariel.UUCP (N.ANDREWS) (10/08/83)
re Michael Massimilla's idea (not original, of course) that consciousness and self-awareness are ILLUSIONS. Where did he get the concept of ILLUSION? The stolen concept fallacy strikes again! This fallacy is that of using a concept while denying its genetic roots... See back issues of the Objectivist for a discussion of this fallacy.... --Norm on ariel, Holmdel, N.J.
blenko@rochester.UUCP (Tom Blenko) (10/08/83)
The statement that consciousness is an illusion does not mean it does not or cannot have a concrete realization. I took the remarks to mean simply that the entire mental machinery is not available for introspection, and in its place some top-level "picture" of the process is made available. The picture need not reflect the details of internal processing, in the same way that most people's view of a car does not bear much resemblance to its actual mechanistic internals. For those who may not already be aware, the proposal is not a new one. I find it rather attractive, admitting most own favorable predisposition towards the proposition that mental processing is computational. I still think this newsgroup would be more worthwhile if readers adopted a more tolerant attitude. It seems to be the case that there is nearly always a silly interpretation of someone's contribution; discovering that interpretation doesn't seem to be a very challenging task. Tom Blenko blenko@rochester decvax!seismo!rochester!blenko allegra!rochester!blenko