Comment by qgin
Consciousness is something you know you have, but you can never know if someone else has it.
We extend the assumption of consciousness to others because we want the same courtesy extended to us.
Consciousness is something you know you have, but you can never know if someone else has it.
We extend the assumption of consciousness to others because we want the same courtesy extended to us.
Aside (for Father's day):
I find it a bit ... cute (?) that all these philosophers that debate this kind of stuff [0] seem to mostly be fatherless bachelors.
Like, men that have had kids just don't seem to happen upon the issues of 'how do I know that other people exist?'. Wether it be due to sleep deprivation or some other little thing in raising a child, men that have the tikes just don't question their reality.
Then you get to mothers. Now, our sources for ancient mother authors, and philosophers in particular, are just about non existent. And I'll have to chime in here that my own education on modern mothers' thoughts about consciousness are abysmal. But from the little reading I've done in that space - Yeah no, mothers don't tend to think that their kids aren't equally real to themselves. I think it's something about having a little thing in you kicking your bladder and lungs for a few months straight then tearing apart your boobs for another while. Oh, yeah, and birth. That's a pretty 'real' experience.
Look, I dunno what my observation says really, or if it's even a good one, just that I had it bopping around for a while.
[0] Descartes, Nietzsche, Plato (not Socrates or Aristotle here), etc. And, yes, not all of them either. But not you, dear commentor.