Ted Honderich
Actual Consciousness: A Lecture -- Database, Theory,
Physicalities, Criteria handout or Powerpoint, 11/2/15
NEED FOR AN ADEQUATE INITIAL CLARIFICATION OF
CONSCIOUSNESS Questions re perceptual, cognitive, affective
consciousness, and re all consciousness. Commonsense definition. Our holds on our consciousnesses. Pessimisms
of Chomsky, Nagel, Chalmers, McGinn. Disagreement about consciousness mainly owed
to lack of adequate initial clarification of subject?
5 LEADING IDEAS
Qualia -- a conflicted consensus; only
part of consciousness, only qualities of. Something
it's like for a thing to be that thing -- circularity, want of reality. Subjectivity -- metaphysical self or
subject, circularity, obscurity. Intentionality
or aboutness -- ambiguity etc re objects, only part of consciousness. Phenomenality -- miscellany, obscurity,
Block mongrel concept, Chalmers bundle. But real thoughts, impulses in all 5
ideas despite no adequate initial clarification.
DATABASE Your being
conscious now in the primary ordinary or core sense is:
the having of something, something being had,
hence something being held,
possessed or owned,
your seeing, thinking,
wanting in the ordinary active sense of the verbs,
the experience in the sense
of the experiencing of something,
something being in contact,
met with, encountered, undergone,
awareness of something,
unattentive
something being directly or
immediately in touch,
something being apparent,
something not deduced,
inferred, posited, constructed, or got from something else,
something somehow existing,,
something being for something,
something being to something,
something being in view, on
view, in a point of view,
something being open,
provided, supplied,
something to which there is
some privileged access,
in the case of perception,
there being the world as it is for something,
what involves or is an object
or content,
an object or content's coming
to us straight-off,
something being given,
hence something existing and
known,
something being present,
something being presented,
something being shown,
revealed or manifest,
here and now,
something transparent in the sense of being unconveyed
by anything else,
something clear straight-off,
something being open,
something being close,
an occurrent or event, not a
disposition to such events,
something real,
something being vividly
naked,
something being right there,
in the case of perception,
the openness of a world.
CONSCIOUSNESS AS SOMETHING
BEING ACTUAL Figurative encapsulation of the above database.
ABSTRACT FUNCTIONALISM = MIND-BODY DUALISM; VARIOUS
OTHER UNIFORM THEORIES: General
Physicalism, Aboutness, Mentalism, Panpsychism, etc.
CRITERIA OF AN ADEQUATE THEORY/ANALYSIS OF
CONSCIOUSNESS
answer to What is actual?
answer to Being actual is what?
the reality of this
consciousness
the difference in kind of
consciousness from all else
its true subjectivity,
including a credible or persuasive unity
its three parts, sides or
kinds of elements
naturalism - consciousness
being a natural fact, in and of science
its relations to behaviour
and to a brain or other basis and also other relations
PHYSICALITY |
/ \
/ \
SUBJECTIVE
PHYSICALITY |
/ /
\
/ / \
|
OBJECTIVE PHYSICAL WORLD |
SUBJECTIVE PHYSICAL WORLDS: Perceptual Consciousness |
SUBJECTIVE PHYSICAL
REPRESENTATIONS: Cognitive and Affective Consciousness |
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ITS PHYSICALITY |
THEIR PHYSICALITY |
THEIR PHYSICALITY |
1 |
in the inventory of science |
in the inventory of science |
in the inventory of science |
2 |
open to the scientific method |
open to the scientific method |
open to the scientific method |
3 |
in space and time |
in space and time |
in space and time |
4 |
in particular lawful connections |
in particular lawful connections |
in particular lawful connections |
5 |
in categorial lawful connections |
in categorial lawful connections, including those with the objective
physical world and the conscious thing |
in categorial lawful connections, including those with the objective
physical world and the conscious thing |
6 |
macroworld perception, microworld deduction |
constitutive of macroworld perception |
not perceived, but dependent on macroworld perception |
7 |
more than one point of view with macroworld |
more than one point of view with perception |
no point of view |
8 |
different from different points of view |
different from different points of view |
no differences from points of view |
9 |
primary and secondary properties |
primary and secondary properties |
no primary and secondary properties |
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ITS OBJECTIVITY |
THEIR SUBJECTIVITY |
THEIR SUBJECTIVITY |
10 |
separate from consciousness |
not separate from consciousness |
not separate from consciousness |
11 |
public |
private |
private |
12 |
common access |
privileged access |
privileged access |
13 |
truth and logic, more subject to? |
truth and logic, less subject to? |
truth and logic, less subject to? |
14 |
open to the scientific method |
open to the scientific method despite doubt |
open to the scientific method, despite doubt |
15 |
includes no self or unity or other such inner fact of subjectivity
inconsistent with the above properties of the
objective physical world |
each subjective physical world is an element in an individuality that
is a unique and large unity of lawful and conceptual dependencies including
much else |
each representation is an element in an individuality that is a unique
and large unity of lawful and conceptual dependencies including much else |
16 |
hesitation about whether objective physicality includes consciousness |
no significant hesitation about taking the above subjective
physicality as being that of actual perceptual consciousness |
no significant hesitation about taking this subjective physicality as
being the nature of actual cognitive and affective consciousness |
ACTUALISM THEORY OF CONSCIOUSNESS: CRITERIA,
RELATIONS, ETC. Concordant likenesses
and differences of two subjective physicalities v. objective physicality, as in
table. Theory certainly not naive realism – not unexplained direct access to
objective physical things. Adequate eubjectivity/individuality role. Relations,
‘e.g. ‘mind-brain’, ordinary and clear.
Pessimisms, e.g. Chomsky, escaped. No ‘hard problem’ at all, e.g. Chalmers. Zombie objection like diabetes illusion. Reassurance
and invitation to consciousness science. Free Will problem spin-off in
subjective physical worlds. Consensus question in philosophy and science. Actual
consciousness the right subject? Most right. Inescapability of conclusions
given prior acceptance of at least reasonable premises? Little-Copernicus
grandiosity?