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Interview with Dennett
reg: Consciousness

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Interview with Dennett

Descartes1
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Posted 04/04/05 - 10:31 PM: Subject: Interview with Dennett	#1
The following is a quote of Dan Dennett from an interview with Robert Wright. The entire interview is in video format and can be accessed through the following website: http://meaningoflife.tv "...what consciousness IS is the relative political influence or fame of structures in the brain that win out in competition against rival structures for domination of the brains activities in various ways - thats putting it very programatically, but basically it is saying that in your head there's a sort of turmoil going on, ...and there's many different contentful events vying for king of the mountain, vying for control. And the ones that win - by default something always wins when you're awake - that's what YOU'RE CONSCIOUS OF"...And it's not that when it wins THEN consciousness happens or that it kindles some further thing that is conscious; THAT'S JUST WHAT CONSCIOUSNESS IS" -Dan Dennett I find the above quote a little misleading. First he seems to be saying that the structure of the brain that wins in competition IS what consciousness is, but then he says 'that's what you're conscious OF' implying that the structure is the CONTENT of your consciousness. But then he goes back to saying 'that's just what consciousness IS'. Is there anyone out there who wants to clarify what Dennett is trying to say in the above quote? Edited by Descartes1 on 04/05/05 - 01:18 AM

Death Monkey
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Posted 04/05/05 - 01:17 AM:	#2
I think that one of the things he is trying to convey is that this somewhat dualistic notion of "structure of consciousness vs content of consciousness" is misguided, and does not really have any relevance to what is actually going on. Notice also that he says that it is the events which are vying for control, and that it is the winning event that "is" consciousness at that moment. Not the brain structure. These events are processes being performed by the brain structures. DM
Pseudoscience makes Baby Jesus cry.

Descartes1
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Posted 04/05/05 - 01:33 AM:	#3
Death Monkey wrote: Notice also that he says that it is the events which are vying for control, and that it is the winning event that "is" consciousness at that moment. Not the brain structure. These events are processes being performed by the brain structures. DM But it seems to me that Dennett believes the events in question are structures of the brain and not a product of these; but again, I'm not so sure.

Death Monkey
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Posted 04/05/05 - 01:38 AM:	#4
But it seems to me that Dennett believes the events in question are structures of the brain and not a product of these; but again, I'm not so sure. Hmmm... I certainly don't get that impression from what he said. What specifically gives you that impression? DM
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Descartes1
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Posted 04/05/05 - 01:41 AM:	#5
Death Monkey wrote: Hmmm... I certainly don't get that impression from what he said. What specifically gives you that impression? DM From the first sentence in the quote. He says 'what consciousness IS is the relative political influence or fame of structures in the brain that win out in competition against rival structures.

Death Monkey
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Posted 04/06/05 - 01:08 AM:	#6
Descartes1 wrote: From the first sentence in the quote. He says 'what consciousness IS is the relative political influence or fame of structures in the brain that win out in competition against rival structures. Exactly. He says that it is the relative influence of structures in the brain (which refers to the processes those structures are performing), not the structures themselves. DM
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Descartes1
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Posted 04/06/05 - 08:40 AM:	#7
Death Monkey wrote: Exactly. He says that it is the relative influence of structures in the brain (which refers to the processes those structures are performing), not the structures themselves. DM Ok, if you don't mind, elaborate. Give me an example of a process these structures would perform.

Faustus
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Posted 04/06/05 - 08:41 AM:	#8
What I find especially amusing is that Wright went on Beliefnet after taping this and declared that he had gotten Dennett to declare that “life on earth shows signs of having a higher purpose.” This bit of distortion was then seized upon by conservative religious bloggers as evidence of yet another atheist turning into a believer. Dennett was quick to point out this was completely bogus, of course.

Descartes1
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Posted 04/06/05 - 08:53 AM:	#9
Faustus wrote: What I find especially amusing is that Wright went on Beliefnet after taping this and declared that he had gotten Dennett to declare that “life on earth shows signs of having a higher purpose.” This bit of distortion was then seized upon by conservative religious bloggers as evidence of yet another atheist turning into a believer. Dennett was quick to point out this was completely bogus, of course. That's ridiculous. Aside from that, I thought Dennett dominated him throughout the interview. By the way Faustus, do you care to explain Dennett's quote for me? I noticed you were the author of the chapters summaries of 'Consciousness Explaine'.

HamishMacSporran
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Posted 04/06/05 - 10:31 AM:	#10
Dennet wrote: "...what consciousness IS is the relative political influence or fame of structures in the brain that win out in competition against rival structures for domination of the brains activities in various ways - ..." It seems to me that taken literally he is saying here that consciousness is the relative dominance of certain structures (activities, processes, events, whatever). Relative dominance suggests to me a scalar measure of dominance. This seems to me equivalent to saying consciousness has the structure of a linear scale. If he had said that consciousness was the influence of these structures this might be taken to mean the manner of their influence in some sort of functionalist approach. However, what he said was 'relative political influence' which suggests measuring the strengths of influences against one another. He went on to use the word 'fame' which to me reinforces the fact he is talking about a linear scale. Which is bollocks. I havent looked at the source material, but I have to conclude Dennet is 'bullshitting'. I like Dennet's ideas and consciousness explained is a great book. The ideas that multiple narratives are constantly being written, but that consciousness foregrounds only one at a time and that there is no 'cartesian theatre' are important within philosophy of mind. It just doesnt explain consciousness, though.

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