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Author Topic:   Atheist and agnostic views on reincarnation and consciousness
nwr
Member
Posts: 6409
From: Geneva, Illinois
Joined: 08-08-2005
Member Rating: 5.3


Message 9 of 21 (346050)
09-02-2006 1:55 PM
Reply to: Message 6 by Ben!
09-02-2006 1:40 PM


What attaches the "I" to a body or to some set of cells?
Why does it need to be attached? Can't it be inseparable from the body, without ever having been attached? I think it is this idea of "attached" that leads you to the idea that it could be detached and have a separate existence.
Unless you think that consciousness emerges from individual cells (seems unlikely to me), then consciousness emerges from something a bit more abstract.
I see consciousness as emerging from processes. In this case they are biological processes, although I don't think the biological aspect is essential. The processes are intimately connected to the physical survival of the body, so I don't see how one can make sense of these processes as detached.
..., then I don't see why consciousness could not be shared, why it is necessarily personal.
What's a person? If the person is a product of the processes involved in producing consciousness, then how could consciousness be anything other than personal?

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nwr
Member
Posts: 6409
From: Geneva, Illinois
Joined: 08-08-2005
Member Rating: 5.3


Message 18 of 21 (346083)
09-02-2006 4:09 PM
Reply to: Message 12 by Ben!
09-02-2006 3:35 PM


I am saying that we don't seem to be thinking of consciousness as a property of individuals, but of systems.
But we also think of individuality as a property of systems, so doesn't that connect the consciousness to the individual?
How similar do they need to be to consider the consciousnesses the same?
Let's look at an example. Suppose that I could write down all of my beliefs in the form of English sentences. And suppose that you could do the same. Maybe it would turn out that we produce the identical lists of sentences. Does that make our beliefs the same? I don't think so. For beliefs are relational. And where I figure in the relation in my beliefs, you would figure in the relation with your beliefs. So that would make them different beliefs.

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 Message 12 by Ben!, posted 09-02-2006 3:35 PM Ben! has not replied

  
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