stevestory
Posts: 13407 Joined: Oct. 2005
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First off, CR beats the shit outta loudmouth barry, but then ET/Joe comes along and misses a point so hard he probably killed a spectator:
Quote | 9 critical rationalistSeptember 9, 2017 at 9:31 am @Barry
Evolutionary processes do not explain consciousness. That’s like expecting evolution to explain photosynthesis. These are two different things.
For example, although there are still a few aspects that we do not understand, the details of how plants turn water, light and CO into oxygen and glucose were not understood until the 1900’s. However, we had an explantion for how the knowege of how plants ended up with that feature before then. Namely, Darwins’ theory of evolution.
Furthermore, it’s unclear how saying human beings are conscious because “that’s just what some conscious being must have wanted” explains consciousness. I’m really quite baffled by how you think this actuall makes any sense.
Specifically, some being that “just was” compete with consciousness, already present, serves no explantory purpose. This is because one could more efficiently state that human beings “just appeared”, complete with consciousness, already present. All you’ve done is pushed the problem up a level without improving it.
IOW, it’s as if you’ve merely pushed the food around on your plate and claimed to have eaten it. Yet, it still there staring you in the face.
For this to make any sense, what you probably mean when you say “explain” is actually “justifiy”. Evolution doesn’t “justify” conciousness, which of course it doesn’t. Justificationism fails spectacularly when we attempt to take is seriously, because it’s impossible. Apparently, it works, because it worked in the past, except it didn’t actually work in the past either.
But, by all means, feel free to explain how it actually works, in practice. You’ll be quite famous in philosophy circles and might even win a Nobel Prize!
So, I’d suggest the very idea that it is possible, despite people pointing out out those fatal flaws, is an example of people believing in something no rational person can believe.
| Quote | 10 ETSeptember 9, 2017 at 12:59 pm Darwin’s theory of evolution doesn’t explain photosynthesis |
linky
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