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From: franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy
Subject: Re: Mechanism and Determinism
Message-ID: <622@mmintl.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 26-Aug-85 21:46:17 EDT
Article-I.D.: mmintl.622
Posted: Mon Aug 26 21:46:17 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 29-Aug-85 23:43:45 EDT
References: <573@mmintl.UUCP> <27500092@ISM780B.UUCP> <606@mmintl.UUCP> <480@spar.UUCP>
Reply-To: franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams)
Organization: Multimate International, E. Hartford, CT
Lines: 36
Summary: still no answers


In article <480@spar.UUCP> ellis@spar.UUCP (Michael Ellis) writes:
>>> Why is there subjective
>>>experience?  The best answer I can think of is that there must be subjective
>>>experience in a world where we experience it.  If we were in a world were
>>>there were none, then we wouldn't be asking the question. [Jim Balter]
>>
>>You didn't answer the question.  Why is there subjective experience in ANY
>>world?  What is subjective experience, anyway? [Frank Adams]
>
>     The Real within the Imaginary
>     A keyboard crazed materialist
>     Encounters an image on the screen
>     Clearly he sees chemicals
>     But they bear no resemblance
>     Too bad, with a muddled head
>     He tries to recognize his reflection!
>
>     -adapted from Goi Koan by a Monk who lived on Mount To
>
>-michael

I don't deny that there is such a thing as subjective experience.  Indeed,
my first impulse is to say that of course there is.  But WHAT IS IT?
The difficulties involved in trying to answer this make me take seriously
the idea that it does not exist, which I would otherwise reject out of hand.
I don't see how to get subjective experience out of a mechanistic system,
and I don't see any reason to believe in (nor understand the meaning of) a
non-mechanistic system.

By the way, I don't have any problem explaining the fact that other people
claim to have subjective experiences.  The problem is in explaining my
own subjectivity to myself.  Maybe it's all an illusion -- but what is it
which is being deceived?

By the way, I don't really expect any answers -- the problem is probably
unanswerable.