Ep. 219: The Harder Problem of Consciousness (Block & Papineau)

The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

Mark Linsenmayer

Casey, Paskin, Philosophy, Linsenmayer, Society & Culture, Alwan

4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 1 July 2019

⏱️ 83 minutes

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Summary

On Ned Block's "The Harder Problem of Consciousness" (2002) and David Papineau's "Could There Be a Science of Consciousness?" (2003).

What would give us sufficient reason to believe that a non-human was conscious? Block thinks this is a harder problem that we might suspect. We can't know for sure exactly what consciousness in us is, so we can't know for sure what such a being might require (a brain? certain patterns of behavior?) for them to be enough like us that we could safely apply our own experience of our own conscious states to them. Papineau diagnoses this as a fundamental vagueness in the concepts we use to describe our conscious states.

This conversation continues from ep. 218, with guest Gregory Miller from the Panpsycast still with us.

End song: "Mindreader" by Phil Judd as interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #98.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Partially examine life relies on your support.
0:02.2	To find out how to help,
0:03.4	in ways that are cheap or even free for you,
0:05.5	check out partiallyexaminelife.com slash support.
0:08.4	[♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪
0:15.9	You are listening to the Partially examined life,
0:17.8	a podcast by some guys who are at one point
0:19.5	said on doing philosophy for living,
0:20.9	but then thought better of it.
0:22.2	Our question for episode 219 is,
0:24.5	how can we know of creatures who are very different from us,
0:26.7	biologically actually are conscious
0:28.4	and will be focusing on Ned Blocks 2002 paper,
0:31.4	the harder problem of consciousness
0:33.0	and David Papetnaus 2003 paper,
0:35.3	could there be a science of consciousness?
0:37.0	You should take this as a continuation
0:38.6	from our episode where we talked about David Chalmers consciousness
0:41.4	and his place in nature 2003,
0:43.3	as I'm sure we'll bring that up again here.
0:45.4	This is Mark Linton Meyer,
0:46.4	talking to you from Madison, Wisconsin.
	...

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