Preliminary Argument for a Holistic Concept of Consciousness and Perception

Abstract

This essay is a beginning attempt to synthesize and to make sense of the inconsistencies and outright absurdities present in many writings in the philosophy of mind that have led me to conclude there is a basic conceptual misunderstanding in modern philosophy of mind as to what it is contemplating just as there are equally absurd conceptual misunderstandings in the work calling itself scientific study of the mind. The conceptual errors are so foundationally basic to the arguments being made that it makes it impossible to take seriously many of the arguments presented in many readings and their conclusions. Yet, these errors are completely ignored and the arguments and their conclusions are taken seriously both by many philosophers and by many neuroscientists who seemingly believe them on faith or argument by authority. This only makes matters worse. These conceptual errors seem to be related, much of it appears to be due to an archaic realist view of scientific theory as it once was that romanticizes it instead of accepting its present and future instrumental nature.

Keywords: philosophy of mind, consciousness, perception, science of mind, philosophy of science, philosophical zombies, inverted spectrum, philosophy of language