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UllrsIshtar -> RE: Let's try leaving religion out of it.... (6/14/2016 10:38:38 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Kaliko
I think the answer is the very unromantic one of evolution. Those assemblages of insentient materials have been added to or cast off from or modified based on what has worked vs. what hasn't worked. The more those materials are refined or made to work together and rely on one another, the more complex a machine those materials make up. Why would our own self awareness be any different? Are emotions learned responses? When we see an animal protecting their young, we attribute it to their animal instinct, but for us, there's emotion involved. I don't think there's a difference - I think it's all the same, and it's all just a matter of where we are on the evolutionary spectrum.
This, on a total side note, is why I still have trouble with the fact that I eat meat now. I really don't see any other sentient being as being all that different than I. I'm regularly accused of anthropomorphism, but I disagree. The bodies and minds of other animals may not have evolved to the extent that ours has, but at what point do we draw that line and say "Yes, now this is a being who has a sense of self?" How would we even know? And why do we think they don't just because it's not recognizable to us?
I'm halfway hesitating to post this because I really don't know what I'm talking about. But, fuck it. :)
You'd find this an interesting read then: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130924-how-belief-in-free-will-shapes-us
In short, the article seems to imply that we're tricked into perceiving ourselves to have free will/consciousness because when we believe that this is the case, we work better together with others. If that's the case, there is a definite evolutionary benefit into us perceiving our own deterministic instincts as choices, and thus tricking us into believing that we have a type of consciousness that's different from other things/animals, when in reality we're merely responding to stimuli with pre-programmed behavior, just as much as they are.
However, considering that the studies also indicate that believe in free will in and of itself influences behavior, it also begs the question whether it really matters if we're truly conscious or not, because merely believing that we are seems to put us in a position where we'll have the perception of having more desirable/more divers options available to us.
It's one of those chicken and egg things: if you believe that you're conscious, does the having of that believe in and of itself create the consciousness, or is it the having of consciousness that creates the believe of consciousness?
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