[Wittrs] Re: Does Dennett throw out the baby with the bathwater?
- From: Gordon Swobe <gts_2000@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: wittrsamr@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 14 Apr 2010 05:19:55 -0700 (PDT)
--- On Tue, 4/13/10, BruceD <wittrsamr@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> That no one can deny. But what does he deny?
Dennett denies the reality of mental states as normal people think of them. He
denies that you have direct knowledge of your own experience (qualia) and
denies that you have such things in your head as thoughts, beliefs and desires.
He denies these common sense ideas because, according to the behaviorist
tradition from which he hails, mental states do not lend themselves to
scientific (third-person) observation and so ought to be disregarded as
something less than real.
But pinch yourself, Bruce. Do you feel that? That's the *real data of
consciousness*. Any rational theory of consciousness needs to explain that
data.
Instead of explaining the data, Dennett's theory denies the existence of the
data. Yes he most definitely throws the baby out with the bathwater!
-gts
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