Re: Sentience

Dan Fabulich (daniel.fabulich@yale.edu)
Wed, 06 May 1998 15:23:36 -0400


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John K Clark wrote:
>Yes. I need no test because my consciousness is one thing, the only thing,
>that I have direct experience of, it's above logic, even if you had an
>impeccable proof that I was not conscious I wouldn't be impressed. On the
>other hand, I do need a test of your consciousness, but I don't have one and
>never will.

Humor me, if you will, with the answer to a particular philosophical
problem which has been bugging me.

I often hear individuals in debates about consciousness stating that they
know, with absolute certainty, "above logic," as you say, that they exist
and that they are conscious. Now, while I do believe that I am conscious,
and have no evidence at all to the contrary, how precisely is it that I
might KNOW that I exist? Surely, if I did not exist, I would not know it.
And though I would have to exist in order to deny my own existence, even to
formulate this question in my mind, how do I know that these are actually
happening? Wouldn't it be possible that I do NOT exist and that I have not
formulated these questions at all?

Would it be more precise to say that I am more certain that I am conscious
than I am certain of anything else? Or is there a stronger version of this
proof which I am overlooking?

Actually, having formulated this question and now realizing my error, I
realize that I SHOULD have asked "How does a person know that they exist?"
or "How do you know?" But the points, I think, do not change.

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