If you want to know why

BillyMc
Thu, 26 May 2011 18:14:31 +0000

Right, so you ignore those. You only consider the fertilizations that have developed into conscious, perceiving people (like you). Why would you consider the possible consciousnesses that have never developed?

No, I mean that you could not have existed in another time because the ingredients necessary for your existence did not exist then.



consciousness?

Inconceivable. Have you not seen The Princess Bride?



The development of language is linked to more sophisticated tool use, to human’s (possibly deliberate) migration of of Africa, etc. It is linked to many of the things we associate with conscious behavior. It is the thing that inculcates the concepts “I” and “You” into those who learn it.

Again, it is easier to imagine things being only as you can perceive rather than being able to exist in ways foreign to you.



There is another thread here on visualization - some things can be conceived (visualized) without words, but we find that the animals that can do this (like elephants) don’t display conscious behavior (or at least not very much in comparison to humans).

Correlation does not imply causation. Language is more likely to be a product of consciousness, rather than consciousness being a product of language.