6 thoughts on “Leonard Mlodinow Is Consciousness Ultimate Reality IS CONSCIOUSNESS FUNDAMENTAL”
Mlodinow is simply being evasive on a question he clearly finds difficult to handle – a question which physics is impotent to answer. Mlodinow suggests that we are stuck for an answer to Kuhn's question until we can say "what feeling something means". But we already do know what it means. We know what it means to feel, to be conscious, and so on, just by feeling, being conscious, and so on.
I suggest that there is a fundamental difference between consciousness and all things and processes that can be understood purely in physical terms. The later can be understood purely in terms of what they do – their function. Their behaviour can be understood mathematically. An electron, for instance, would be whatever it was that behaved in this or that specified way. That is how we understand and come to be able to identify what we call electrons. Electrons can be understood only from the third-person, objective perspective. All this is how the word 'electron' gets its meaning. Consciousness, on the other hand, cannot be understood in this way. It can be understood as what it essentially is only from the first-person, subjective perspective. It can be understood only by being conscious, or, at least, from being able to reflect on being conscious.
This difference is the source of the tension we experience when comparing consciousness with physical processes.
hah he truly has him on the run and he comes undone at the end. He doesn't want to acknowledge the existence of qualia simply because he cannot explain it with logic or words or in a "scientific formula" and yet it still exists.. that is the point, it cannot be explained in material terms.
I just love how resistant Leonard is to allowing nonsense to contaminate science.
the interviewer is annoying… let the man speak
The interviewer is being rather dense!
the subjective and the objective are one and the same!
Mlodinow is simply being evasive on a question he clearly finds difficult to handle – a question which physics is impotent to answer. Mlodinow suggests that we are stuck for an answer to Kuhn's question until we can say "what feeling something means". But we already do know what it means. We know what it means to feel, to be conscious, and so on, just by feeling, being conscious, and so on.
I suggest that there is a fundamental difference between consciousness and all things and processes that can be understood purely in physical terms. The later can be understood purely in terms of what they do – their function. Their behaviour can be understood mathematically. An electron, for instance, would be whatever it was that behaved in this or that specified way. That is how we understand and come to be able to identify what we call electrons. Electrons can be understood only from the third-person, objective perspective. All this is how the word 'electron' gets its meaning. Consciousness, on the other hand, cannot be understood in this way. It can be understood as what it essentially is only from the first-person, subjective perspective. It can be understood only by being conscious, or, at least, from being able to reflect on being conscious.
This difference is the source of the tension we experience when comparing consciousness with physical processes.
hah he truly has him on the run and he comes undone at the end. He doesn't want to acknowledge the existence of qualia simply because he cannot explain it with logic or words or in a "scientific formula" and yet it still exists.. that is the point, it cannot be explained in material terms.
I just love how resistant Leonard is to allowing nonsense to contaminate science.
the interviewer is annoying… let the man speak
The interviewer is being rather dense!
the subjective and the objective are one and the same!