[Wittrs] Ontological vs. Causal Reduction
- From: Joseph Polanik <jpolanik@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: wittrsamr@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2010 07:44:52 -0400
BruceD wrote:
>Joseph Polanik wrote:
>>just to be clear, Searle's actual claim is that consciousness is not
>>ontologically reducible (even though causally reducible) to the brain
>>processes that cause it; and, we are both treating that position as a
>>sufficient basis for claiming that, for Searle, consciousness is an
>>ontological basicality.
>Help me grasp the difference between ontological and causal reduction,
>please. Take a tooth ache. In what sense can the ache be reduced to
>brain processes but still not reduced ontologically.
the form of your question begs an obvious question: how do we know that
the toothache is 'reduced' at all.
let's say that you have a damaged tooth; that you experience pain; and,
that you conclude that the damaged tooth (T) causes the pain (P).
schematically, you are saying: P is caused by T
now, as you know (because you helped bring this out), a cause can not be
identical to its own effect. this is due to Leibniz's Law of the
Indiscernibility of Identicals. (the tooth has a property the pain
doesn't have so they can't be identical). in short, causality implies
non-identity.
the non-identity of brain state or brain process and experience leaves
us with two 'items'; and, this strikes some people as being dualistic;
so, they would prefer to say: P is nothing more than T. that 'reduces'
the number of items to be explained back down to 1; hence, it is an
'ontological reduction'.
claims about causal and or ontological reductions are just rhetorical
tactics employed for the strategic objective of 'proving' that evidence
establishing that P is caused by T really establishes that P is nothing
more than T.
Joe
--
Nothing Unreal is Self-Aware
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