Gary McGraw
We just lost another great light of rationalism. Dan Dennett helped get me started in philosophy of mind way back in the late '80s. Dan was right about lots of things. https://dailynous.com/2024/04/19/daniel-dennett-death-1942-2024/
Daniel Dennett (1942-2024) - Daily Nous

Daniel Dennett, professor emeritus of philosophy at Tufts University, well-known for his work in philosophy of mind and a wide range of other philosophical areas, has died. Professor Dennett wrote extensively about issues related to philosophy of mind and cognitive science, especially consciousness. He is also recognized as having made significant contributions to the concept

Daily Nous - news for & about the philosophy profession
Apr 19, 2024 at 3:42pmWeb
Show threadGary McGrawApr 19, 2024
dughof says, "Sic transit gloria mundi."
Show threadWoozle HypertwinApr 19, 2024

@cigitalgem I really enjoyed Darwin's Dangerous Idea, and have found myself referring to ideas from it many times.

RIP.

Show threadAndrocatApr 19, 2024

@cigitalgem As far as I know, after Strauss, the least bad of the big profile New Atheists.

The rest, awful.

Show threadDolf van der Haven 🐘🐓Apr 19, 2024
@cigitalgem He had odd ideas about consciousness, though.
Show threadGary McGrawApr 19, 2024
@dvdhaven yeah. So does Dave (chalmers). I'm surrounded by people who don't understand consciousness. Lol.
Show threadDolf van der Haven 🐘🐓Apr 19, 2024
@cigitalgem Who does, really? I find Chalmers to be a more convincing philosopher, butnone of the theories comes close to my perception of it.
Show threadPatrick GillamApr 19, 2024

@cigitalgem @dvdhaven

As I understand what I’ve seen called The Hard Problem, it falls into two camps: One says consciousness is an epiphenomenon of neural activity, and the other says consciousness is the transcendent substrate of creation. Is that a fair way to describe it?

Show threadGary McGrawApr 19, 2024
@patrickgillam @dvdhaven I try not to know these things....
Show threadDolf van der Haven 🐘🐓Apr 19, 2024
@patrickgillam @cigitalgem The "easy" problem is to determine how consciousness arises from physical structures in the brain (assuming it does). The "hard" problem is to determine how this in turn gives rise to subjective awareness.
Show threadMarc LepageApr 19, 2024
@dvdhaven @patrickgillam @cigitalgem I'm only 2/3 through The Conscious Mind, but my take on Chalmers' Hard Problem is that nothing we explain about how consciousness arises from physical matter (which presumably can be done, and is therefore the Easy Problem) explains *why* we should have conscious experience at all. Why not an Occam-approved world populated by Philosophical Zombies (who act in every way as if they have conscious experience, but don't)?
Show threadGary McGrawApr 20, 2024
@mlepage @dvdhaven @patrickgillam as such a zombie, I think you are on to something.
Show threadsofia ☮️🏴Apr 21, 2024

@dvdhaven why di you think awareness is "harder" than consciousness? it seems to me like if they aren't synonymous, awarenesses seem to be parts of consciousness. like your conscious experience consists (probably among other things) of awareness of various things, stimulated though sense data.

and of course the sense data is highly subjective…

@patrickgillam @cigitalgem

Show threadDolf van der Haven 🐘🐓Apr 22, 2024
@sofia @patrickgillam @cigitalgem It's not about awareness vs. consciousness, but as follows:
- Easy problem: how does consciousness originate from physical structures? This leads to a possibility to determine if a person is conscious.
- Hard problem: how does this consciousness lead to subjective experience? This is the "awareness" I meant and is not something you can externally determine, only the person himself can indicate if he has subjective experience.
Show threadsofia ☮️🏴Apr 22, 2024

@dvdhaven well, it's about modelling the outside world and self into a format that can be auctioned on by the mind. usually we can just ask people if they are conscious, and they won't respond if they don't 🤷.

and it seems pretty clear that you can feed subjective data into a consciousness to get subjective experience. what else could it lead to, if it's not ignored? that even works if you hook up novel senses, we aren't evolved to have, like with compass bracelets.

@patrickgillam @cigitalgem

Show threadcultured nyc 🇺🇦Apr 19, 2024
@cigitalgem I thought of you when I saw the news. Sorry for your loss.
Show threadGary McGrawApr 19, 2024
@culturednyc thanks. Dan was really fun to hang out with. I always thought it was great when he showed up at my CS/security talks and people would whisper, "what is Dan Dennett doing here?" just before he said, "hi, Gary."
Show threadbmoreinis=>journa.hostApr 19, 2024
@cigitalgem @JamesGleick I first head Dan speak at “Towards a Scientific Theory of Consciousness” in Tucson in 1997, which he organized. It was like being at Woodstock! I read Elbow Room next (amazing) and then other works. What a great, caring philosopher of mind.
Show threadcousinDannyApr 19, 2024
@cigitalgem sad news. I remember listening to a lot of his work in the early 2000s.
Show threadRay InglesApr 19, 2024

@cigitalgem

Well, crap. He had a way of expressing ideas pithily, like the "Moral Agents Club." Or the gem about "Philosophers' Syndrome: mistaking a failure of the imagination for an insight into necessity."

Show threadMark SaltveitApr 19, 2024

@cigitalgem

The criminally unknown guitarist Chris Smither wrote this killer blues song "Seems so Real" based on Dan Dennett's "Consciousness Explained".

3rd verse:
"I mind my brain
but it's real enough to shatter
behind my eyes or between my ears
I think of mind as the ruler of the matter
but it's really the whining of the gears."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iz1XM-SwRh4

#blues #smither #mind #consciousness

Chris Smither - "Seems So Real"

YouTube
Show threadMarc LepageApr 19, 2024
@cigitalgem I read Consciousness Explained just before pandemic lockdown. Lots to think about, and more of his works remain on my reading list.
Show threadAlexandre SieiraApr 21, 2024
@cigitalgem he will be missed. 💔