Re: Where the I is

From: brent.allsop@attbi.com
Date: Wed Feb 19 2003 - 16:40:46 MST

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    Rafal Smigrodzki <rafal@smigrodzki.org> commented:

    >>>I do not quite understand your above paragraph. Specifically, I do not know
    what is "voluntary cognitive part of conscious experience".<<<

    When we consciously think about an idea, the idea is voluntarily produced or
    conjured into our consciousness by our will. We can make the thought come and
    go as we will. But qualia from direct sensa data are not voluntary like this.
    As long as you are looking at a patch of red, the red quale produced in your
    consciousness can not be voluntarily altered or shut off. Similarly, if your
    eyes are closed, you cannot voluntarily produce the same awareness of red.
    (Except of course in dreams). Hence I refer to this kind of conscious
    awareness of sensa data as being involuntary. This voluntary/involuntary
    distinction seems to me to be a good way to distinguish one type of cognitive
    representation from another in discussions like this.

    Brent Allsop



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