A kick for the philosophers - double entendre intended (LINK)
April 18th 2008 23:12
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From: Science and Reason. I've put the link up the top for you. But reading is not compulsory. YET.
Consciousness, free will, etc.
For quite a long time, the subject of "consciousness" was not considered especially suitable for scientific investigation. A tremendous amount has been written about it, of course. But most of that has been written by philosophers rather than working scientists. Quite a few, if not a substantial majority, of philosophers seem to think that consciousness is a "mystery" that isn't likely to be understood scientifically anytime soon, if ever.
Well, on one hand, when a subject is not very amenable to scientific investigation, then it usually is philosophers, rather than scientists, who write and speak about it. Only when you see that situation change, and you have actual experimental scientists working on the problem and having the technology to actually conduct meaningful experiments, is it time to regard the subject as fair game for science.
At one time even physics was a subject discussed more by philosophers than by scientists. But that changed when people like Galileo and Newton came along, followed by many others. In regard to consciousness, perhaps the technology known as "functional MRI" may be the factor that tips the scales towards real science.
On the other hand, my general opinion of philosophers is well expressed by a quote attributed to one of the all time greatest scientists, C. F. Gauss: "When a philosopher says something that is true, then it is trivial. When he says something that is not trivial, then it is false."
However that may be, we are now in fact seeing real scientific work being done on the subject of consciousness.
So will Science do the philosophers out of business? I'd love to hear from you.
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Comment by tlcorbin
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But, for you Raven, I guess it's back to basics.