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From: thomas@ckgp.UUCP (Michael Thomas)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Direct awareness
Summary: Wait a second....
Message-ID: <603@ckgp.UUCP>
Date: 19 Jun 91 22:50:22 GMT
Article-I.D.: ckgp.603
References: <1991Jun17.144356.21450@aifh.ed.ac.uk> <25348@samsung.samsung.com> <8570@awdprime.UUCP>
Organization: CKGP Assoc. Inc. Birmingham, MI
Lines: 60

In article <1991Jun17.144356.21450@aifh.ed.ac.uk>, bhw@aifh.ed.ac.uk
(Barbara H. Webb (Phd 89)) writes:
> What is 'knowing' or 'being aware of' if it is not the process of
> sensing or percieving something? If you _have_ the sensation of seeing
> your keyboard, then you are aware of your keyboard (directly) rather
> than aware of your sensation. What you describe solves the problem of 
> _how_ awareness occurs, not by finding the processes underlying it, but by
> moving the entire problem back one step - the senses project the outside
> world onto a video screen inside our heads and the little man inside our
> head 'knows directly' what he sees there, and infers that it reflects
> some real scene going on outside the head. This is not much help to a
> science of cognition, because we don't how the little man manages his
> 'direct awareness' any more than we knew how we were aware of the world in
> the first place.
> [...]
> Barbara Webb
> bhw@aifh.ed.edu.uk

	I don't feel that you are using the right when when you say
 awareness. If all you mean by saying that you are aware, is that
 you are receiving the stimulus then you are "directly" aware of
 all stimulus which goes to your brain. I see that you are trying to
make a point as to if you are aware of the object because of the
OBJECT or because of the STIMULUS then that isn't even a question!
You can't SEE a chair or a keyboard! The only thing that you can SEE 
is the light reflected (or refracted) off of an object! Your eyes
can not detect wood or platic or metal JUST light! So what is my point?
        Well, that brings me to another comment...You then go on to say
that our senses project the outside world into a video screen inside
our heads and a little man inside sees the images. PLEASE, your just
repeating the first problem... The brain can NOT see. the brain can
only work with stimulus. Are you directly aware of being burned? No.
Are you directly aware of sound? No. If you are blind you never will
understand the sensation of sight. I say this losesly because if you 
have every work with someone blind you know that they usually can see
some component: Depth of processing, as the stimulus works its way
to the back of the brain to the visual cortex information is extracted,
like light and dark, lines, size, location and the such (not in that order.)
	Now the point: If the question is are you receiving stimulus 
or not, well yes you are. If the question is do you see the object? the
answer is no you see the light (a left is green because that is the only
color that it doesn't obsorb...) If the question is you being metally
aware that the object exists, well yes because if it didn't you wouldn't
get stimulus in the first place.
	NOW, what I truely think the question is: Do you experience the
object directly or indirectly? NOPE! 8^) The brain can't see,hear, touch
taste or smell or anything else. and if my greatest defense is that
the brain doesn't contain any sensory neurons, then fine. SO EVERYTHING
IS EXPERIENCED INDIRECTLY.           
	MY POINT: the only thing the mind is aware of directly is ITSELF!

    8^)  Note: everything was said with a smile! Thanks for listening...

-- 
Thank you,
Michael Thomas
(..uunet!ckgp!thomas)