Consciousness defined
It's not a thing
I read an excellent article at BBC about consciousness at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cv223z15mpmo
In the not so distant past science took the stance that we know nothing about the experience of other animals since they can't talk. It was considered unobjective to project our own motives and experiences onto animals.
This kind of view was held by scientists at work even as they cuddled a cat at home.
You might take Descartes' solipsist position and say "I think therefore I am" and doubt that other people were conscious. But that left thinking as what defined consciousness. I imagine that Descartes thought that he could find evidence of thinking in other people by talking to them.
Since you can't talk to animals then there was no evidence that they could think. From there a leap was taken that, since there was no evidence that they could think, it was impossible for them to be conscious.
I've lived with a few cats and I was always dubious about that proposition when it came to cats. But, I admit, I sort of tacitly take that position every time I eat meat. My only copout is that by the time food gets to be meat, it looks nothing like the animal it came from.
But I've known pigs and cattle and even chickens and they have all seemed to be conscious to me; not because they could talk but because they seemed to act in a rational manner according to what I imagined their goals to be. We may not know her ultimate goal, but the chicken did want to cross the road.
I've known for a while now that all sorts of other animals are conscious. Certainly octopuses are. And whales. How about bees? It seems that some bees enjoy pushing little wooden balls around for fun. Is having fun a sign of consciousness?
The article above mention many animals that display consciousness down to the level of fruitflies.
At which point I must say; hold on, just what are we talking about here?
I've long thought that the word 'consciousness' itself is problematic. Its a slippery word that seems innocuous but actually works as an intuition pump supporting a lot of bad ideas.
The word consciousness is a noun and very strongly implies that it is some sort of special thing that some creatures possess. Pallab Ghosh (author of the above article) was careful at one point to define consciousness as the capability to be conscious - which is better - but then slides back into the habit of treating consciousness as a thing. Then it seems that everything, down to fruit flies possesses that thing. I think that vegans have confronted that reality
Once though I built a little boat out of a plate fished out of the garbage, some coffee cup lids, a couple of electric eyes and motors and the thing would swim around looking for the brightest light. My little boat had a very dim sort of awareness but it wasn't conscious but it illustrated a component of being conscious - you need awareness of some sort.
But many other capabilities can be added to that. At a low level we have memory and perception. At higher levels we add capabilities like self perception and language and writing. And a bloodhound might look down their nose at me and what's wrong with your smeller? (with a sniff ?
One of our human capabilities is being able dimly see the future and we can try to plan rationally and we have hopes and dreams.
Once at work I had to handle a mouse caught in a glue trap. I had to take it and throw it into a dumpster. I could feel it moving. I imagined it's experience in the dumpster. I put it on the ground and stomped it.
I knew that the mouse was conscious. It was uncomfortable. I thought it would be bad to prolong that experience.
I don't think my little boats had anything ike an experience.
What do you think?
I present regular philosophy discussions in a virtual reality called Second Life.
I set a topic and people come as avatars and sit around a virtual table to discuss it.
Each week I write a short essay to set the topic.
I show a selection of them here.