> On 11 Sep, 03:37, Ed earthlink.net> wrote:
>
>
>

>> On Sep 10, 6:16 pm, "andy-k" wrote:

>

>>> Ed wrote:

>>>> In all such discussions I am struck by the absence of clarity in the
>>>> phrase "consciously experiencing".  Other brain functions seem
>>>> clearer; ideas like "remembering" or "recognizing" or even "deciding"
>>>> seem relatively amenable to definition.  "Consciously experiencing" on
>>>> the other hand never seems to get defined.

>

>>>> What distinguishes "consciously experiencing" from "experiencing"?
>>>> Suppose I'm concentrating really hard on a math problem while eating a
>>>> candy.  After I solve the problem I notice the aftertaste of the candy
>>>> in my mouth.  Did I "consciously experience" the taste of the candy?
>>>> When?  There's no question that the taste buds were stimulated,
>>>> signals were sent to the brain etc, I just didn't notice at the time.

>

>>>> Have you ever had the experience of walking down the street and
>>>> suddenly stopping and turning back because you realize you saw
>>>> something that caught your interest but you took several steps before
>>>> you realized it?  When you saw it did you "consciously experience"
>>>> it?  You couldn't "consciously experience" it later when you stop, by
>>>> that time it's not an experience, it's a memory of an experience.  On
>>>> the other hand it makes a mockery of the word "consciously" to say you
>>>> "consciously experienced" it when you saw it but you weren't conscious
>>>> of it at that time.

>

>>>> Examples like this make me believe that I, at least, do not know what
>>>> "consciously experiencing" actually involves.

>

>>> Try this Ed:

>

>>>http://www.susanblackmore.co.uk/Articles/jcs02.htm

>

>> That was great!  Thank you for the reference.  I have no idea if her
>> specific take is correct but I'm delighted to find that people are
>> looking beyond the "usual suspects" in consciousness study.

>

>> Her ideas on consciousness need to be melded with new ideas on
>> identity.  If there are processes going on all the time but 'I" am
>> only conscious of some of them what am "I"?  I'm not the "whole
>> person"; that entity would be aware of all the processes.

>
> In the paper consciously experiencing was defined where it said:
>
> "For the purposes of this discussion, if something is referred to as
> consciously experiencing is will mean that it is like something to be
> that thing. Such that it could be said that the cinematic device used
> in the Terminator movie for the robot suggested that it was
> consciously experiencing."
>
> The issue of "what it is like" was first mentioned by Nagel I believe
> (http://members.aol.com/Neonoetics/Nagel_Bat.html), though
> it is understood by Dennet, he uses it in his paper What RobotMary
> Knows (http://ase.tufts.edu/cogstud/papers/RoboMaryfinal.htm)
> as mentioned. It has also been used by philosophers such as David
> Chalmers in his definition of qualia (http://consc.net/papers/
> nature.pdf) to overcome Dennet's points in his paper Quining Qualia
> (http://ase.tufts.edu/cogstud/papers/quinqual.htm).
>
> Hopefully that it is like something to be you, but not a teddy bear,
> is clear to you, and as such so should what consciously experiencing
> means in the paper. I assune it was just that at a glance you
> overlooked where , as it is meant in the
> paper, was defined.