[2015-12-26] Dennett and Qualia

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MeisterKleister
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[2015-12-26] Dennett and Qualia

Post by MeisterKleister »

Ohh, now you dun it!

It's true that Daniel Dennett is not convinced that Qualia is even a coherent concept, but he does claim (specifically) that colors are real!
"Free Will Is Not an Illusion; It's as Real as Colors and Dollars"
https://youtu.be/RHLMjlI-mSM?t=1m5s

Anyway, I'm glad Zach did a comic about my favorite philosopher. :)
"Men educated in [the critical habit of thought] … are slow to believe. They can hold things as possible or probable in all degrees, without certainty and without pain." -William Graham Sumner

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Searle

Re: [2015-12-26] Dennett and Qualia

Post by Searle »

I prefer the philosophy of John Searle.

Bieoep

Re: [2015-12-26] Dennett and Qualia

Post by Bieoep »

Searle wrote:I prefer the philosophy of John Searle.
"Computers can't think, because unlike brains, they lack the correct causal properties."

"What do you mean by 'causal properties'?"

"The properties that allow brains to cause thought, silly."

"And what properties would those be, specifically?"

"I dunno."

Guest

Re: [2015-12-26] Dennett and Qualia

Post by Guest »

Sounds like chomsky re: human language

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MeisterKleister
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Re: [2015-12-26] Dennett and Qualia

Post by MeisterKleister »

Oh yea, for those interested, Dennett wrote an article called 'The Self as a Center of Narrative Gravity (1992)'
http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.t ... ravity.pdf
And he also doesn't claim that the self is fiction, but that it is like fiction.

I believe in more recent lectures and writings Dennett draws another analogy of the self being like a virtual machine stacked on top of other virtual machines running on our brains.

Here some reviews on Dennett's books :)
http://human-nature.com/nibbs/03/dcdennett.html
http://dannyreviews.com/a/Daniel_C._Dennett.html
"Men educated in [the critical habit of thought] … are slow to believe. They can hold things as possible or probable in all degrees, without certainty and without pain." -William Graham Sumner

My Goodreads bookshelf

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MeisterKleister
Posts: 22
Joined: Thu May 02, 2013 2:06 pm

Re: [2015-12-26] Dennett and Qualia

Post by MeisterKleister »

I just finished re-reading one of Dennett's books and found this:
... Steve Gould insisted to me that I should check all his various publications, and see for myself that his opponents were foisting a caricature on him. He struck a nerve; no one knows better than I how frustrating it is to have the skeptics hang a crude but convenient label on one's subtle view. (I'm the guy who reputedly denies that people experience colors or pains, and thinks that thermostats think—just ask my critics.) So I checked.

- taken from Darwin's Dangerous Idea - Evolution and the Meanings of Life (1996)
"Men educated in [the critical habit of thought] … are slow to believe. They can hold things as possible or probable in all degrees, without certainty and without pain." -William Graham Sumner

My Goodreads bookshelf

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