[Xmca-l] Re: Fate, Luck and Chance

[Andy Blunden]

Huw, don't misunderstand me. By saying "consciousness is an illusion" I 
am saying something very positive about it. It is an illusion which 
proves more or less adequate for guiding my activity, just as for 
example, my rear vision mirror is adequate for guiding my driving, 
because I am "educated" about mirrors. It is useful I think to frankly 
say that consciousness is an illusion - an illusion with survival value 
for humans - because it opens a point of agreement between the 
positivists and the psychologists. We both can say "consciousness is an 
illusion." OK, let's discuss that.

But consciousness differs from a material process like stimuli-response, 
that is, an unmediated relation between an organism and its environment, 
between physiology and behaviour. This is what the neuroscientist 
typically overlooks. We say "yes, the mediating element is just an 
illusion, which is why you can't find it, but hey! it's a very useful 
illusion." :)

Andy
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*Andy Blunden*
http://home.pacific.net.au/~andy/


Huw Lloyd wrote:
> I would concur with Andy that 'mysterious' is not useful, but I'd say
> Andy's use of 'illusion' has this problem too, because any such illusions
> are materially manifested.
>
>   
>