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Single Idea 2966

[filed under theme 17. Mind and Body / A. Mind-Body Dualism / 3. Panpsychism ]

Full Idea

Halting the slide into panpsychism is the major advantage of holding that phenomenal qualities can exist unsensed.

Clarification

'Panpyschism' says consciousness exists but doesn't actually do anything. It is a side-effect of the brain.

Gist of Idea

Can phenomenal qualities exist unsensed?

Source

Michael Lockwood (Mind, Brain and the Quantum [1989], p.170)

Book Ref

Lockwood,Michael: 'Mind,Brain and the Quantum:The Compound 'I'' [Blackwell 1991], p.170

A Reaction

Presumably unsensed phenomenal qualities would explain the discovery that we seem to make decisions before we are conscious of what we intend to do. That result certainly implied that consciousness had no real function.

The 20 ideas from 'Mind, Brain and the Quantum'

2949 We have the confused idea that time is a process of change [Lockwood]
2958 No one has ever succeeded in producing an acceptable non-trivial analysis of anything [Lockwood]
2959 If something is described in two different ways, is that two facts, or one fact presented in two ways? [Lockwood]
2960 Commonsense realism must account for the similarity of genuine perceptions and known illusions [Lockwood]
2961 Empiricism is a theory of meaning as well as of knowledge [Lockwood]
2962 Maybe causation is a form of rational explanation, not an observation or a state of mind [Lockwood]
2963 There may only be necessary and sufficient conditions (and counterfactuals) because we intervene in the world [Lockwood]
2964 How come unconscious states also cause behaviour? [Lockwood]
2966 Can phenomenal qualities exist unsensed? [Lockwood]
2967 We might even learn some fundamental physics from introspection [Lockwood]
2950 Only logical positivists ever believed behaviourism [Lockwood]
2969 How does a direct realist distinguish a building from Buckingham Palace? [Lockwood]
2970 Dogs seem to have beliefs, and beliefs require concepts [Lockwood]
2971 Perhaps logical positivism showed that there is no dividing line between science and metaphysics [Lockwood]
2951 Could there be unconscious beliefs and desires? [Lockwood]
2952 A 1988 estimate gave the brain 3 x 10-to-the-14 synaptic junctions [Lockwood]
2953 Fish may operate by blindsight [Lockwood]
2954 Identity theory likes the identity of lightning and electrical discharges [Lockwood]
2955 If mental events occur in time, then relativity says they are in space [Lockwood]
2956 There is nothing so obvious that a philosopher cannot be found to deny it [Lockwood]