The Semantic Apocalypse (2008)(speculativeheresy.wordpress.com)
speculativeheresy.wordpress.com
The Semantic Apocalypse (2008)
http://speculativeheresy.wordpress.com/2008/11/26/the-semantic-apocalypse/
2 comments
Can anyone make sense of this? I tried but it's rambling, claims absolutes, pushes his book, uses long words that always make me suspicious that someone's trying to hide something simple (or it may not, but damned if I can tell here).
The main idea that you might be struggling with: What if humans aren't conscious at all, but just aware in the same way as other animals? What if consciousness is illusory?
An SMBC might help: https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/do-humans-have-feelings
An SMBC might help: https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/do-humans-have-feelings
Starting from definitions, you're saying that our consciousness is different from animals.
But we have no definition of consciousness and no way of quantifying differences between animals and us (ignoring the fact that we are animals).
> What if consciousness is illusory?
since we don't know what it is nor can measure it (other than in degrees of unconsciousness, which I guess isn't what is meant here), how can we say that is is an illusion, and if so, compared to a non-illusory what?
Finally, who cares? I don't and I guess many people would these days shrug and say, descartes-like "I am what I am" and carry on. It's like religious people saying their morality comes from the bible and the threat of hell, but as secularity emerged over the centuries, the non-religious still behaved pretty much the same morally (I use this as an example of fundamentals turning out to be less important than expected, I don't want to start a religious discussion here)
But we have no definition of consciousness and no way of quantifying differences between animals and us (ignoring the fact that we are animals).
> What if consciousness is illusory?
since we don't know what it is nor can measure it (other than in degrees of unconsciousness, which I guess isn't what is meant here), how can we say that is is an illusion, and if so, compared to a non-illusory what?
Finally, who cares? I don't and I guess many people would these days shrug and say, descartes-like "I am what I am" and carry on. It's like religious people saying their morality comes from the bible and the threat of hell, but as secularity emerged over the centuries, the non-religious still behaved pretty much the same morally (I use this as an example of fundamentals turning out to be less important than expected, I don't want to start a religious discussion here)