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gjm comments on Open thread, Aug. 03 - Aug. 09, 2015 - Less Wrong Discussion

5 Post author: MrMind 03 August 2015 07:05AM

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Comment author: cousin_it 04 August 2015 07:28:24PM *  6 points [-]

Wikipedia on Chalmers, consciousness, and zombies:

Chalmers argues that since such zombies are conceivable to us, they must therefore be logically possible. Since they are logically possible, then qualia and sentience are not fully explained by physical properties alone.

That kind of reasoning allows me to prove so many exciting things! I can imagine a world where gravity is Newtonian but orbits aren't elliptical (my math skills are poor but my imagination is top notch), therefore Newtonian gravity cannot explain elliptical orbits. And so on.

Am I being a hubristic idiot for thinking I can disprove a famous philosopher so casually?

Comment author: gjm 05 August 2015 12:44:54PM 0 points [-]

If you are, then so am I, because that was also my immediate reaction on hearing this conceivability argument.