CONSCIOUSNESS EXISTS!!!!
Philosophy of Mind is characterised by a set of seemingly intractable problems - mind/body interaction, mind/matter reconciliation, qualia, intentionality, phenomenal space and time….
Are these problems as difficult to solve as they seem?, or, are the difficulties we encounter a consequence of the cognitive stance that we are adopting toward them - the fundamental assumptions that we are making?
Many scientists and philosophers who are interested in the problem of consciousness adopt a position that can be loosely illustrated by the following metaphor.
Whether the scientist or philosopher realises it or not they first place the problem (consciousness) within a context - in this case - we shall use a stage in a theatre. We shall call this stage space and time. Our problem - consciousness, is represented by a hidden or masked character in the play.
The way in which we have intuitively set up the problem leads us to suppose that the answer to our problem - What is consciousness?, is to be found by analysing the interaction between Consciousness and the other characters on the stage, or, perhaps. as a consequence of the interaction between characters other than consciousness - physics, chemistry, objects, physical phenomena, stars, etc!
I believe that this might be a mistake!
Is consciousness the stage rather than the play?
(see also Kant and Bergson's public argument with Einstein)
'The play is NOT the thing to catch the consciousness of the King.'
Following the analogy, it's not.
Consciousness, as we unsdertand it, it's the result of the conjuction of variables that enables some light upon the theather, nor the stage nor the play, but it's set on the stage, Time and Space, and partially ligthens the play, the World.
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