[ExI] consciousness and perception

[Ian Goddard]

> I didn't know you were a representationalist.  

 Thanks for the good words and invite! When I wrote [*] for ought I knew 
it was a new idea. I was pondering the question, since my percept of a 
star in the heavens is actually just photos from a star that have struck 
my optic nerve and been processed in my brain, how is it that the percept 
appears 'out there'. Suddenly I concluded that what I see as being 'out 
there' must be a model in my brain built up from sensory data emanating 
from a real 'out there' that I can't see directly except by way of neural 
acquisition and representation.

 Then, while doing research for my longer paper in the student journal I ran into Lehar's extensive work and found that the idea goes way back.


> I'm betting we'll soon be able to congratulate each other as being the 
> first members of the camp that represents THE ONE true theory of 
> consciousness.

 I don't know what representationalism tells use about consciousness. I 
see it as a mechanical way of assembling percepts for an 'observer', ie, 
a conscious self. But this process does not necessarily entail an 
observer. Take for example 'absence epilepsy' during which an epileptic 
can interact with the world, but only in a mechanical lifeless way. By all 
appearances, both from other observers and the epileptic afterward, there 
was no conscious self there during the seizure. And yet it seems clear 
that the brain was assembling a model of the world all the while.

 Also, there can be things in our field of vision that we fail to notice, 
even though the brain assembled a representation of them. So it seems like 
the conscious self is something still higher. I suspect we agree about 
that. Obviously consciousness is an exceedingly complex and mysterious 
issue. But I'd be interested to know how you see representationalism as 
an inherent feature of the right theory of consciousness. Though I 
suspect you can't have a conscious being interacting with the world in 
complex ways without that being having assembled a world model. ~Ian

_______________________________________________________________________
[*] http://www.iangoddard.com/paranorm.htm


http://IanGoddard.com

"It is Art, and Art only, that reveals us to ourselves." - Oscar Wilde