[extropy-chat] New paper by David Chalmer's definitively squashing materialism

[Marc Geddes]

Yeah! (Marc gives the up-yours sign to SL4)
 "This paper is intended to be the definitive version of the two-dimensional
argument, being maximally explicit about details and replying to many of the
objections that have been raised in the literature in the last ten years or
so."
 http://consc.net/papers/2dargument.html
 The paper inspired a song with music to accompany it:
 *Two Sides Now*
**

Folds of lobes beneath the hair

reuptake serotonin there—

C fibers firing everywhere—

I've thought of brains that way.

But I conceive them making puns,

and sobbing, singing, having fun—

with nothing mental getting done—

it's just a brain's array.

 I've thought of brains from two sides now

with mind inside a zombie's brow—

but that's delusion I forestall—

a zombie cannot think—at all!

 Incorrigible inner spiel,

the irrefutable raw feel,

conflation of ideal with real—

I've thought of minds that way.

But how a thermostat could know

how high a heating bill should go,

a little stupid so-and-so

with widest content, eh?

 I've thought of minds from two sides now

the *a priori* tells me how

to strongarm Armstrong's view to fall—

it cannot speak for minds—at all.

 "Possible" comes in two brands,

one gives us paws (instead of hands!),

the other Kripke understands—

I see the world that way.

So I conclude I have two sides—

my one can kiss, one fantasize—

which no zombie could cognize

(though zombies still could date!).

 I see the world from two sides now,

that brains exist I must allow,

but mind's inclusion in them calls

for double-aspect view—of all!

 http://www.manitowoc.uwc.edu/staff/awhite/phisong.htm#2sides


--

Please vist my website:
http://www.riemannai.org

Science, Sci-Fi and Philosophy

---

THE BRAIN is wider than the sky,
For, put them side by side,
The one the other will include
With ease, and you beside.

-Emily Dickinson

'The brain is wider than the sky'
http://www.bartleby.com/113/1126.html
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