If consciousness has no causal efficacy and/or is an illusion, then why is pain so horrible. What possible purpose can there be in making/evolving something so awful if that awfulness (the conscious experience of it) cant do anything. Moreover, why did it so happen/evolve exactly as we would expect it to if consciousness could indeed do something (helping us avoid pain, for example, by, say, consciously associating/remembering how it feels when fire burns our hand). That is, if consciousness can and does do nothing then we might as well get a taste like strawberries when we burn our hand - a far nicer illusion, and just as evolutionarily beneficial (ie, not at all). This is what I call the coherence of consciousness problem: if consciousness does nothing then why is it/why did it evolve, exactly as one might expect if it did do exactly what we take it to do - generate actions. Is nature not only a bastard (pain really hurts) but a bastard prankster (pain really hurts for no reason)? I think not.
Posted on: Sun, 30 Mar 2014 15:10:00 +0000