If you want to know why

enfieldacademy
Thu, 26 May 2011 18:10:32 +0000

“You” would not exist if another sperm fertilized your mother’s egg or if your father’s sperm fertilized another egg. Without that specific combination of those exact two cells, you wouldn’t exist. Countless souls who could have been conceived never were.



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?



Spanish accent You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.



consciousness?



Inconceivable to someone who thinks in words, perhaps, but not to someone without language who thinks without words, so we don’t know. Ever had an idea that you couldn’t convey with words?



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.

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).

I think it’s hard to dispute that consciousness requires some sort of complex system of associations, a language. And a language that can evolve, that has some basis sounds or letters or signals or (more generally) distinct elements that can be reconfigured. It could be a language based off visual perception (like sign language is), among other things.