Mustelafan t1_ja4z6mw wrote on February 26, 2023 at 9:52 PM

Reply to comment by Ma3Ke4Li3 in Neuroscientist Gregory Berns argues that Thomas Nagel was wrong: neuroscience can give us knowledge about what it is like to be an animal. For example, his own fMRI studies on dogs have shown that they can feel genuine affection for their owners. by Ma3Ke4Li3

Example #136,742 of a scientist misusing their authority as an expert of a scientific field to assert they've disproven an influential philosophical concept that they don't understand. This is the equivalent of an idealist philosopher saying they've disproven evolution by natural selection because animals only exist as impressions in the mind and thus can't be said to physically reproduce or die, or something.

DigitalDiogenesAus t1_ja5e5c2 wrote on February 26, 2023 at 11:37 PM

I know what it is to be a TV because I can see moving pictures and know they are made of pixels.

Mustelafan t1_ja5esd1 wrote on February 26, 2023 at 11:41 PM

That analogy is way better than mine lol

i875p t1_ja5zg0d wrote on February 27, 2023 at 2:20 AM

It's kind of hard to understand how things like this keep happening. Nagel's argument basically boils down to something like "we, as human beings, are physiologically quite different from bats, and therefore it's very likely that we'll never know how a bat experiences things from the 1st person perspective". It is as science-friendly as philosophy can get.

ImmoralityPet t1_ja6fcco wrote on February 27, 2023 at 4:35 AM

Neuroscientists and bad philosophy: the most iconic pop-philoosphy duo!