Chapter 2 of \"Does it Matter:\"--Matter doesn\'t exist! (Humans)

by dhw, Friday, September 17, 2010, 12:11 (4989 days ago) @ xeno6696

MATT: Is there anything here in what I've quoted that negates my arguments here? Any other questions/comments? Am I off base?-I've read all this a couple of times, and am as mystified as you by the argument that if consciousness is a product of the mechanical processes of unconscious matter, it means "that seeing can be causally and logically derived from being seen." As I understand it, the materialist view is that unconscious matter somehow contrived to combine itself in such a way that it gave rise to perception (= seeing) and awareness of perception (= consciousness). How the heck does this mean that being seen is the cause of sight, let alone consciousness? Similarly, "without consciousness, nothing can exist" is an incomprehensible leap of reasoning. Maybe he's cottoned onto the obvious fact that without perception nothing can be perceived, and without consciousness there can be no awareness of perception, but the argument that there is nothing to be perceived until we perceive it means that we create what we see (as you say, back to Berkeley). If he doesn't believe in a material universe independent of our perception, it's a wonder he's survived long enough to write his book.-Of course the quotes are out of context, and I may not have understood them myself, so my remarks may be grossly unfair, but from what you have told us so far, I'd say your arguments are spot on. My only question to you would be: why bother?