[ExI] The alleged existence of consciousness

[Stathis Papaioannou]

On 17 February 2010 00:20, Gordon Swobe <gts_2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> --- On Tue, 2/16/10, Stefano Vaj <stefano.vaj at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Consciousness is a social construct...
>
> A social construct? Is digestion a social construct?
>
> Seems to me consciousness amounts to just another biological process like digestion. The brain does this thing called consciousness when in the awake state or in the state of sleep+dreaming. It stops doing it temporarily after physical shocks such as blows to the head, or when in the presence of too much alcohol, or when it sleeps but does not dream. It stops for the last time at death.

But digestion is nothing over and above the chemical breakdown of food
in the gut. Similarly, consciousness is nothing over and above the
enacting of intelligent behaviour.


-- 
Stathis Papaioannou