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Single Idea 4880
[filed under theme 15. Nature of Minds / B. Features of Minds / 1. Consciousness / a. Consciousness
]
Full Idea
'Sentience' comes in every imaginable grade or intensity, from the simplest and most 'robotic', to the most exquisitely sensitive, hyper-reactive 'human'. We have to draw a line for moral policy, but it is unlikely we will ever discover a threshold.
Gist of Idea
Sentience comes in grades from robotic to super-human; we only draw a line for moral reasons
Source
Daniel C. Dennett (Kinds of Minds [1996], Ch.4)
Book Ref
Dennett,Daniel C.: 'Kinds of Minds' [Phoenix 1997], p.128
A Reaction
This is the only plausible view, if you take the theory of evolution seriously. We can even observe low-grade marginal sentience in our own minds, and then shoot up the scale when we focus our minds properly on an object.
The
21 ideas
with the same theme
[general ideas about consciousness]:
7995
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In all living beings I am the light of consciousness, says Krishna
[Anon (Bhag)]
|
19354
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Leibniz introduced the idea of degrees of consciousness, essential for his monads
[Leibniz, by Perkins]
|
23658
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Consciousness is an indefinable and unique operation
[Reid]
|
4166
|
A consciousness without an object is no consciousness
[Schopenhauer]
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23872
|
'Society determines consciousness' is contradictory; society only exists in minds
[Weil on Marx/Engels]
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5277
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Life is not determined by consciousness, but consciousness by life
[Marx/Engels]
|
19626
|
Our instincts had to be blunted and diminished, to make way for consciousness!
[Cioran]
|
21941
|
Unlike Marxists, Foucault explains thought internally, without deference to conscious ideas
[Foucault, by Gutting]
|
5786
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A system is either conscious or it isn't, though the intensity varies a lot
[Searle]
|
5794
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Consciousness has a first-person ontology, which only exists from a subjective viewpoint
[Searle]
|
5795
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There isn't one consciousness (information-processing) which can be investigated, and another (phenomenal) which can't
[Searle]
|
4884
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Brain states must be in my head, and yet the pain seems to be in my hand
[Perry]
|
2528
|
Does consciousness need the concept of consciousness?
[Dennett]
|
7367
|
Perhaps the brain doesn't 'fill in' gaps in consciousness if no one is looking.
[Dennett]
|
7393
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We can't draw a clear line between conscious and unconscious
[Dennett]
|
4880
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Sentience comes in grades from robotic to super-human; we only draw a line for moral reasons
[Dennett]
|
7854
|
Whether octopuses feel pain is unclear, because our phenomenal concepts are too vague
[Papineau]
|
7889
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Our concept of consciousness is crude, and lacks theoretical articulation
[Papineau]
|
7891
|
We can’t decide what 'conscious' means, so it is undecidable whether cats are conscious
[Papineau]
|
4621
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Whatever exists has qualities, so it is no surprise that states of minds have qualities
[Heil]
|
6668
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If the present does not exist, then consciousness must be memory of the immediate past
[Marshall]
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