Date of Award

6-2015

Document Type

Open Access

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Philosophy

First Advisor

David Barnett

Language

English

Keywords

human, conciousness, evidence, mind

Abstract

In this paper I argue that we have evidence to believe certain views in the philosophy of mind over others. Specifically, the fact that humans are conscious is evidence in favor of a view insofar as that view holds that a greater proportion of beings in the universe are conscious. My reasoning is as follows: if a greater proportion of beings in the universe are conscious, then it is more likely that human beings will be conscious; human beings are conscious, therefore we have reason to believe that a greater proportion of physical beings in the universe are conscious. Human consciousness is evidence in favor of views which hold that a greater proportion of beings are conscious, because human consciousness is more likely, epistemically speaking, under those views. Once I have made this argument, I then turn to familiar views in the philosophy of mind. I argue that under certain metaphysical views about the relationship of the physical to the mental, we ought to think that a greater proportion of beings are conscious. Therefore human consciousness is evidence in favor of those metaphysical views.

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