Why Isn't Consciousness Empirically Observable? Emotional Purposes As Basis For Self-Organization
ABSTRACT: Most versions of the knowledge argument say that if a scientist observing my brain does not know what my consciousness 'is like,' then consciousness is not identical with physical brain processes. This unwarrantedly equates 'physical' with 'empirically observable.' However, we can conclude only that consciousness is not identical with anything empirically observable. Still, given the intimate connection between each conscious event (C) and a corresponding empirically observable physiological event (P), what P-C relation could render C empirically unobservable? Some suggest that C is a relation among Ps which is distinguishable because it is multi-realizable; that is, C could have been realized by P2 rather than P1 and still have been the same relation. C might even be a 'self-organizing' process, appropriating and replacing its own material substrata. How can this account explain the empirical unobservability of consciousness? Because the emotions motivating attention direction, partly constitutive of phenomenal states, are executed, not undergone, by organisms. Organisms-self-organizing processes actively appropriating their needed physical substrata-feel motivations by generating them. Thus, experiencing someone's consciousness entails executing his or her motivations.
That there is something empirically unobservable about phenomenal consciousness follows from a modified knowledge argument. Traditional versions (Jackson 1986; Robinson 1982; Noren 1979) hold that if experiencing were equivalent with physical brain states, then complete empirical knowledge of brain states should constitute knowledge of everything about my experiencing; but complete empirical knowledge of brain states would not constitute knowledge of everything about experiencing (those alone wouldn't reveal 'what it's like' to have that experience); therefore, experiencing is not equivalent with physical brain states. This argument can be criticized for unwarrantedly assuming that everything 'physical' is empirically observable (from an experimenter's standpoint). E.g., Jackson assumes that the 'what it's like' aspect isn't "expressible in physical language" (291), but the reason for granting this assumption is that 'what it's like' is inexpressible in terms of possible empirical observations. Without the assumption that everything 'physical' is empirically observable, we can conclude, not that consciousness is non-physical (since there might be 'physical' processes that are observationally inaccessible), but simply that consciousness isn't identical with anything empirically observable. Still, given the intimate connection between each conscious event (C) and a corresponding empirically observable physiological event (P), what P-C relationship could render C empirically unobservable? If identical, they should be equally observable. I.e., if P ® EO and C ® not-EO, then P¹C.
Nadal, Marita. "Temporality And Narrative Structure In Flannery O'connor's Tales." Atlantis (0210-6124) 31.1 (2009): 23-39. Fuente Académica. Web. 1 Nov. 2013.
Knopf, Alfred A. Anne Frank in the World. New York: Knopf, 2001. Print. 06 Feb. 2014
There are many stories, diaries and books from the time of The Holocaust but arguably the most famous of them all is the story of Anne Frank. Anne Frank was a teenage Jewish girl who went into hiding in her fathers offices in Amsterdam, The Netherlands when the Nazis called up her older sister, Margot (Anne ??). Just before the call up, Anne had started to write a “diary” which she continued to write when she went into hiding with her family. Throughout the book Anne writes that her worst nightmare is to be discovered (Anne ??). The Franks when into hiding in 1941 in the Annex of the Opekta offices and were arrested by the Nazis in ???. After such a long period of time in hiding there are many suspects for who betraye...
Anne Frank was a 13-year-old Jewish girl who was thrown into one of the worst periods in the history of the world; the Holocaust. Though she went through awful things that many people will never experience, she always kept the faith that there was still some good in everyone. She once said, “Despite everything I still believe people are truly good at heart.” Her diary, which she kept while her family was in hiding from the Nazis, shows the triumph of her spirit over the evil in the world even through the pain of adolescence. The Franks and Van Dans were hiding and they suffered many hardships, mentally and physically. Many people in Anne’s situation would have become bitter and resentful, but Anne never would despair.
"The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, depicts a woman in isolation, struggling to cope with mental illness, which has been diagnosed by her husband, a physician. Going beyond this surface level, the reader sees the narrator as a developing feminist, struggling with the societal values of the time. As a woman writer in the late nineteenth century, Gilman herself felt the adverse effects of the male-centric society, and consequently, placed many allusions to her own personal struggles as a feminist in her writing. Throughout the story, the narrator undergoes a psychological journey that correlates with the advancement of her mental condition. The restrictions which society places on her as a woman have a worsening effect on her until illness progresses into hysteria. The narrator makes comments and observations that demonstrate her will to overcome the oppression of the male dominant society. The conflict between her views and those of the society can be seen in the way she interacts physically, mentally, and emotionally with the three most prominent aspects of her life: her husband, John, the yellow wallpaper in her room, and her illness, "temporary nervous depression." In the end, her illness becomes a method of coping with the injustices forced upon her as a woman. As the reader delves into the narrative, a progression can be seen from the normality the narrator displays early in the passage, to the insanity she demonstrates near the conclusion.
"The Yellow Wallpaper" tells the story of a woman living in the nineteenth century who suffers from postpartum depression. The true meaning implicit in Charlotte's story goes beyond a simple psychological speculation. The story consists of a series of cleverly constructed short paragraphs, in which the author illustrates, through the unnamed protagonist's experiences, the possible outcome of women's acceptance of men's supposed intellectual superiority. The rigid social norms of the nineteenth century, characterized by oppression and discrimination against women, are supposedly among the causes of the protagonist's depression. However, it is her husband's tyrannical attitude what ultimately worsened her emotional problems to the point of insanity.
Drake, Robert. "The Bleeding Stinking Mad Shadow of Jesus in the Fiction of Flannery O?Connor. Comparative Literature Studies. University of Illinois. 1966. Vol. 3. 183-196.
The 21st Century has established foundations that are conducive to diving deeper in brain science and explain more of the neurological processes that occur in humans. The amount of material that neuroscience and brain science have both discovered is mind-boggling and is continuing to develop. Furthermore, physicalism argues that the mind is physical and because it is a physical form, interaction is capable of occurring between the mind and body. This theory is supported by numerous facts, but best supported the law of conservation of energy. Interactionists claim that the mind is nonphysical and believe that near-death visions can account for the spiritual mind, but our mind has become adept at imagining scenes and figures that are believed to be real. Overall, science has only been the constant evidence in any phenomena that researchers try to apprehend; therefore, physicalism is best explained through science where the mind and brain are synonymous and
...vior as a means of coping with the tragedy of existence (422). “The gods show us how there is a need for a whole world of torment in order for the individual to produce the redemptive vision” (422). O’Connor employed Christian beliefs to create cathartic works of fiction in the same way Greek writers used their gods and heroes in tragic literature.
Frank, Anne. Anne Frank: the diary of a young girl. New York: Bantam Books, 1993. Print.
The Yellow Paper is a short story published in 1892, and written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Charlotte tells of a disheartening tale of a woman who struggles to free herself from postpartum depression. The Yellow Paper gives an account of an emotionally and intellectual deteriorated woman struggles to break free from a mental prison her husband had put her into, in order to find peace. The woman lived in a male dominated society and wanted indictment from it as she had been driven crazy, because of the Victorian “rest-cure” (Gilman 45). Her husband decided to force her to have a strict bed rest by separating her from her only child. He took her to recuperate in an isolated country estate all alone. The bed rest her husband forced into made her mental state develop from bad to worst. The Yellow Paper is a story that warns the readers about the consequences of fixed gender roles in a male-dominated world. In The Yellow Paper, a woman’s role was to be a dutiful wife and she should not question her husband’s authority and even whereabouts. Whereas, a man’s role was to be a husband, main decision maker, rational thinker and his authority was not to be questioned by the wife.
"The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, tells the story of a woman's descent into madness as a result of the "rest and ignore the problem cure" that is frequently prescribed to cure hysteria and nervous conditions in women. More importantly, the story is about control and attacks the role of women in society. The narrator of the story is symbolic for all women in the late 1800s, a prisoner of a confining society. Women are expected to bear children, keep house and do only as they are told. Since men are privileged enough to have education, they hold jobs and make all the decisions. Thus, women are cast into the prison of acquiescence because they live in a world dominated by men. Since men suppress women, John, the narrator's husband, is presumed to have control over the protagonist. Gilman, however, suggests otherwise. She implies that it is a combination of society's control as well as the woman's personal weakness that contribute to the suppression of women. These two factors result in the woman's inability to make her own decisions and voice opposition to men.
Bella, Peter V. "Occupy Movement Is Generation Entitlement." Washington Times Communities. The Washington Times, 1 Sept. 2012. Web. 19 Feb. 2014.
Annelies Marie Frank was born on June 12, 1929, in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Because of their Jewish faith, Anne Frank and her family fled Nazi Germany for the Netherlands in 1933 to avoid persecution. After Germany invaded the Netherlands in 1942, the family spent two years living in a small hidden room in Amsterdam in order to elude capture by Nazi occupation forces. They were discovered in 1944 and arrested. Anne was sent to a concentration camp, where she died the following year. Her famous diary of the two years she spent in hiding was later found in the room where she and her family had lived. Anne’s father, Otto, had taken the family to Amsterdam, where he had established a small food products business. When Germany invaded The Netherlands in 1940, the Franks once again became subject to escalating anti-Semitic persecution. In 1941 Anne was required to transfer from a public school to a Jewish school. Secretly, Otto Frank prepared a hiding place by sealing off several rooms at the rear of his Amsterdam office building. A swinging bookcase hid the rooms Frank concealed.
On June 12, 1929, at 7:30 AM, a baby girl was born in Frankfort, Germany. No one realized that this infant, who was Jewish, was destined to become one of the worlds most famous victims of World War II. Her name was Anne Frank. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, by Anne Frank and B.M. Mooyaart, was actually the real diary of Anne Frank. Anne was a girl who lived with her family during the time while the Nazis took power over Germany. Because they were Jewish, Otto, Edith, Margot, and Anne Frank immigrated to Holland in 1933. Hitler invaded Holland on May 10, 1940, a month before Anne?s eleventh birthday. In July 1942, Anne's family went into hiding in the Prinsengracht building. Anne and her family called it the 'Secret Annex'. Life there was not easy at all. They had to wake up at 6:45 every morning. Nobody could go outside, nor turn on lights at night. Anne mostly spent her time reading books, writing stories, and of course, making daily entries in her diary. She only kept her diary while hiding from the Nazis. This diary told the story of the excitement and horror in this young girl's life during the Holocaust. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl reveals the life of a young innocent girl who is forced into hiding from the Nazis because of her religion, Judaism. This book is very informing and enlightening. It introduces a time period of discrimination, unfair judgment, and power-crazed individuals, and with this, it shows the effect on the defenseless.