Stoica, Ovidiu Cristinel (2020) The negative way to sentience. [Preprint]
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Abstract
While the materialist paradigm is credited for the incredible success of science in describing the world, to some scientists and philosophers there seems to be something about subjective experience that is left out, in an apparently irreconcilable way. I show that indeed a scientific description of reality faces a serious limitation, which explains this position. On the other hand, to remain in the realm of science, I explore the problem of sentient experience in an indirect way, through its possible physical correlates. This can only be done in a negative way, which consists in the falsification of various hypotheses and the derivation of no-go results. The general approach I use here is based on simple mathematical proofs about dynamical systems, which I then particularize to several types of physical theories and interpretations of quantum mechanics. Despite choosing this scientifically-prudent approach, it turns out that various possibilities to consider sentience as fundamental make empirical predictions, ranging from some that can only be verified on a subjective basis to some about the physical correlates of sentience, which are independently falsifiable by objective means.
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Item Type: | Preprint | ||||||
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Keywords: | Sentience, hard problem of consciousness, scientific method, dynamical systems, mathematical structures, materialism, idealism, monism, sentientism, eternalism, presentism, artificial intelligence, foundations of quantum mechanics, free will, metaphysics, ontology | ||||||
Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Consciousness General Issues > History of Philosophy of Science Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics |
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Depositing User: | Ovidiu Cristinel Stoica | ||||||
Date Deposited: | 11 Apr 2020 02:15 | ||||||
Last Modified: | 11 Apr 2020 02:15 | ||||||
Item ID: | 17036 | ||||||
Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Consciousness General Issues > History of Philosophy of Science Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics |
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Date: | 23 March 2020 | ||||||
URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/17036 |
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