[ExI] consciousness - reply to John

William Flynn Wallace foozler83 at gmail.com
Fri Dec 8 18:51:50 UTC 2017


Taking off from your idea that you cannot verify the consciousness of
others:

Then you cannot also verify:  emotions, thinking (conscious or
unconscious), any kind of mental state, whether hidden or possibly the
basis of some external behaviors.

So, theoretically, you are a solipsist.

But to get along in the world, mustn't you as 'as if' these other people
are experiencing similar things to what you experience when they act in
certain ways in certain situations?

In other words you are functionally a person who believes that the model
you have of your own interior experiences and external actions is similar
to that of the rest of the world.

Of course, you cannot even verify that your own model is accurate, since
self-deception is rampant in everyone, but you must act as if it is.

I think this makes you no different from anyone else.

bill w
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