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    Made withinDC&Austin
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    42
    Humans will never be able to explain the psychophysical l... — Carmelics
    Home/Skepticism
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    Humans will never be able to explain the psychophysical link between mind and brain

    Consciousness & Mind
    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.Human perceptual concepts are inherently spatial in nature
      ?

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    • 2.The scientific concepts humans derive from perception are also inherently spatial
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    • 3.Understanding the psychophysical link requires concepts that go beyond spatial perceptual and scientific concepts
      ?

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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Cognitive closure arguments assume a fixed human conceptual repertoire, but conceptual frameworks can be radically extended through theory and abstraction.
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    • 2.Science has repeatedly developed non-perceptual concepts (e.g., quantum superposition, spacetime curvature) that transcend spatial intuition yet successfully explain physical phenomena.
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    • 3.There is no principled reason why analogous conceptual extension cannot bridge phenomenal and physical descriptions, given sufficient theoretical innovation.
      ?

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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.McGinn's closure argument conflates 'currently unexplained' with 'inexplicable in principle', committing a form of the argument from ignorance.
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    • 2.Eliminativist and illusionist positions (Dennett, Frankish) dissolve the explanatory gap by reconceiving phenomenal consciousness itself, removing the target the argument assumes is irreducible.
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    Topics

    SkepticismConsciousness & Mind

    Connections

    1 topic

    Perception2 linked

    Related

    Cognitive closure arguments assume a fixed human conceptual repertoire, but conc...Eliminativist and illusionist positions (Dennett, Frankish) dissolve the explana...Human perceptual concepts are inherently spatial in natureHumans are therefore not conceptually suited for understanding the nature of the...
    +5 moreShow less
    McGinn's closure argument conflates 'currently unexplained' with 'inexplicable i...Science has repeatedly developed non-perceptual concepts (e.g., quantum superpos...The scientific concepts humans derive from perception are also inherently spatia...There is no principled reason why analogous conceptual extension cannot bridge p...Understanding the psychophysical link requires concepts that go beyond spatial p...

    Similar

    Humans are therefore not conceptually suited for understanding the nat...82%Facts about the psychophysical link fall outside the conceptual and co...81%Facts about the psychophysical link are cognitively closed to humans80%If the body senses and the mind does not, an explanation is required f...78%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: consciousness
    View source passageHide passage
    In perhaps its weakest form, it asserts a practical limit on our present explanatory abilities; given our current theories and models we can not now articulate an intelligible link. A stronger version makes an in principle claim about our human capacities and thus asserts that given our human cognitive limits we will never be able to bridge the gap. To us, or creatures cognitively like us, it must remain a residual mystery (McGinn 1991). Colin McGinn (1995) has argued that given the inherently s
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit