Sisyphus's Boulder: Consciousness and the Limits of the KnowableConsciousness lies at the core of being human. Therefore, to understand ourselves, we need a theory of consciousness. In Sisyphus's Boulder, Eric Dietrich and Valerie Hardcastle argue that we will never get such a theory because consciousness has an essential property that prevents it from ever being explained. Consequently, philosophical debates over materialism and dualism are a waste of time. Scientific explanations of consciousness fare no better. Scientists do study consciousness, and such investigations will continue to grow and advance. However, none of them will ever reveal what consciousness is. In addition, given the centrality of consciousness in philosophy, Dietrich and Hardcastle claim that philosophy itself needs to change. That the central problems of philosophy persist is actually a profound epistemic fact about humans. Philosophy, then, is a limit to what humans can understand. (Series A) |
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Sisyphus's Boulder: Consciousness and the Limits of the Knowable Eric Dietrich,Valerie Gray Hardcastle No preview available - 2004 |
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1-conceivability 1-possibility argue believe blindsight brain processes brute fact Cartesian and zombie Cartesian intuition causal cause cell assemblies Chalmers Chalmers's claim cognitive science conceivable conscious experience correlates of consciousness crucial defang Dietrich dualism epistemic example explaining consciousness explanation of consciousness explanatory gap Flohr Hardcastle Hence human imagine intuition pump Jackson logically supervene materialists McGinn metaphysics microtubules mind modal Müller-Lyer illusion mysterians mysterious Nagel naturalism naturalists ness neural correlate neurons NMDA NMDA receptors notion objective concepts objective points one's perceptual perspective physical points of view possible worlds primary intension problem of consciousness problems of philosophy properties psychological qualia quantum mechanics red square reduce consciousness relevant robust satisfying explanation science of consciousness scientific theory scientists sciousness secondary intension sort subjective and objective supervenience base supervenience inference supervenience relation theory of consciousness things third-person Thomas Nagel understand consciousness universe Valerie Gray zombie intuitions zombie twins