Consciousness, and related notions like sentience and self-awareness, denote the capacity of certain organisms to express recognition of their own presence in the world.
Questions tagged [consciousness]
496 questions
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Why is it impossible for a program or AI to have semantic understanding?
relatively new to philosophy.
This question is based on John Searle's Chinese Room Argument.
I find it odd that his main argument for why programs could not think was that because programs could only follow syntax rules but could not associate any…
Abraham
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Does anyone assert the real existence of p-zombies?
Philosophical zombies are usually presented as, let say, "conceivable" and then this assertion is used to infer dualism.
Have any philosophers taken the position that p-zombies are in fact real, and, if so, what do they conclude from this?
By real,…
Dave
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Which signs indicate consciousness in other beings?
There are arguments confirming and denying that animals have consciousness. Some arguments say that not even all humans have consciousness, e.g. small babies.
Which observable signs do exist that indicate that another being (animal, baby, ...) may…
Bob
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Why am I this particular human being?
Some philosophers dismiss this as a question about a tautology: when Alice asks "Why am I Alice?", this is equivalent to her asking "Why is Alice Alice?", which is not an interesting question. But other philosophers believe that, from a…
present
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Does a rock falling down a hill perform computation?
Imagine a rock in the shape of a chessboard with pieces in a certain configuration.
Throw the rock down a particular hill. The hill is shaped in such a way that, given the correct throw, the chessboard-rock will be chipped and flinted in a…
MeltyButter
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Can we tell whether human groups or societies are behaving as superorganisms?
An anthill can be described as a superorganism, with behaviours and interactions much more complex than those of an individual ant. We could find analogies between the superorganism and other living organisms, as memory for instance. Chemicals that…
rraallvv
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Is God subject to logic?
If someone claims that God is beyond logic then how do we know he is beyond logic ? (as we lose all the methods to know whether the claim is true or not?)
Logic is the use and study of valid reasoning, while reason is the capacity for consciously…
Arun
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Is it the job of physics to explain consciousness?
Is explaining consciousness in the realm of physics?
Detailed question:
We know that consciousness exists. Or rather, I know that I have it. The rest of you may not be conscious, but I know that I am, so it exists. Since it's the job of physics to…
Bhagwad Jal Park
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What is hard about the “hard problem of consciousness”?
By the “hard problem”, I’m referring to the exposition by David Chalmers.
He phrased the hard problem as “why objective, mechanical processing can give rise to subjective experiences.” I find it difficult to think of this as hard.
Imagine the…
J Li
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Is the person in the mirror an example of a philosophical zombie?
Consider the following situation:
You are in a room that has a mirror as one of its walls.
You assert/commit to that you are conscious and have qualia.
You look at the mirror, and you observe your own image.
The person in the mirror looks and…
Justas
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Can conjoined twins share a mind?
A unique recent case of conjoined twins having a neural bridge connecting their brains raises some philosophical questions concerning mind sharing and the mind-body problem. From the article by Dominus in NYT (she personally spent 5 days with the…
Conifold
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What happens when a conscious, intelligent being interprets a deterministic model?
Sorry, I’m new here, and I’ve truly no experience with philosophy. However, I’ve had this problem that I’ve been thinking about for awhile concerning a deterministic model for the universe.
Consider a hypothetical, experimental world where the…
user8013
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What are the differences between sentience, consciousness and awareness?
Dictionary definitions such as this one often seem to use the terms sentience, awareness, and consciousness as if they are synonymous with each other. Is this really the case? If not, how do they differ? Some books suggest that sentience and…
coleopterist
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Does consciousness depend on our five senses?
Does consciousness depend on our five senses? If we never have senses, would we have consciousness? It seems that if we lose our senses, we would maintain our consciousness. But if we never had senses to begin with?
Imagine a child born without any…
Fred Oakman
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How do materialists respond to the thought experiment of the perception of blue and red colors being swapped?
By materialism, I mean the belief that the totality of all in existence is material. That is, particles/waves/energy in the space-time fabric.
If one were to construct a thought experiment that demonstrated there exist things that are independent of…
abnry
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