Question beggingness is an intrinsic property of arguments: it shouldn't depend on external factors.
It's an intrinsic property of arguments in contexts. Specifically, whether something is question-begging depends on what one's trying to prove.
Indeed explanations aren't arguments. The arguments we're talking about are ones of the form "Theory X is better than theory Y because it explains alleged facts F better". Merely saying "Consciousness (or whatever) is fundamental" is of course not question-begging. But if the existence, or some property, of consciousness is one of the alleged facts F, and if theory X simply postulates whatever property it is of consciousness, then a question is being begged.
Again: would that apply to all "X is fundamental" arguments?
I don't claim to be able to contemplate all imaginable arguments that say things are fundamental. But, in general, claiming that something's fundamental and just happens to have the properties it's known to have is a pretty weak move; and saying "Look, I've now given an explanation of whatever-it-is, so I'm doing better than you stupid people who are still looking for more complicated explanations" is invalid.
Those would be the factors that make the posit that consciousness is fundamental (part of) a good explanation.
I'm afraid I don't understand. Would you care to say a little more.
Don't they?
"Matter" isn't a first-class citizen in modern physics. There are a bunch of quantum fields, and things that happen to those fields produce the effects we call matter. (And other things that happen to those fields produce actually-quite-similar effects that we generally don't call matter, such as physical forces.) "Space" isn't quite a first-class citizen either; spacetime is; its geometry is determined by the matter-and-similar-stuff in it. I wouldn't say that space and matter (or spacetime and mass/energy) are exactly unified; my rather noncommital language ("don't exactly take them as separate fundamental things") was deliberate.
It's an intrinsic property of arguments in contexts. Specifically, whether something is question-begging depends on what one's trying to prove.
A formal argument will include a conclusion. If that is the same as one of its premises, a question is being begged.
...Indeed explanations aren't arguments. The arguments we're talking about are ones of the form "Theory X is better than theory Y because it explains alleged facts F better". Merely saying "Consciousness (or whatever) is fundamental" is of course not question-begging. But if the e
Background
I was raised in the Churches of Christ and my family is all very serious about Christianity. About 3 years ago, I started to ask some hard questions, and the answers from other Christians were very unsatisfying. I used to believe that the Bible was, you know, inspired by a loving God, but its endorsement of genocide, the abuse of slaves, and the mistreatment of women and children really started to bother me.
I set out to study these issues as much as I could. I stayed up past midnight for weeks reading what Christians have to say, and this process triggered a real crisis of faith. What started out as a search for answers on Biblical genocide led me to places like commonsenseatheism.com. I learned that the Bible has serious credibility problems on lots of issues that no one ever told me about. Wow.
My Question
Now I'm pretty sure that the God of the Bible is man-made and Jesus of Nazareth was probably a failed prophet, but I don't have good reasons to reject the supernatural all together. I'm working through the sequences, but this process is slow. I will probably struggle with this question for months, maybe longer.
Excluding the Supernatural was interesting, but it left me wanting a more thorough explanation. Where do you think I should go from here? Should I just continue reading the sequences, and re-read them until the ideas gel? I'm coming from 30 years of Sunday School level thinking. It's not like I grew up with words like "epistemology" and "epiphenomenalism". If there is no supernatural, and I can be confident about that, I will need to re-evaluate a lot of things. My worldview is up for grabs.