The Illusion of the Cartesian Theater (Daniel Dennett)

A clip of Daniel Dennett discussing consciousness and what he famously calls the Cartesian Theater. This comes from a 2015 documentary on Dennett.

#Philosophy #Dennett #Consciousness

[Danyel]

I remember somebody saying that his book "Conciousness explained" should be rather called "Conciousness ignored".😂

[sayresrudy]

i can’t say explaining himself is his strength (at least here). this is a muddle of metaphors & levels of analysis that never clarify.

[lukeabbott]

The existence of subjective experience is undeniable, yet he tries to deny it. This is absurd and unintelligible. In his defence though, he does have a lovely house.

[MahmoudIsmail.]

that was very inarticulate!! "they would.. and then they woooow.. but they shouldn't"

[GottfriedLeibnizYT]

It never ceases to amaze me that Dennett "managed" to get rid of consciousness but couldn't manage to get rid of free will ..

[deadsteve]

How can consciousness not be important? Consciousness is what assigns importance.

[stefanmarin]

Yes I agree, consciousness might be is a byproduct of neural reactions, and not the other way around, but that doesn't mean that the theatre isn't real. it's obviously happening. Maybe we can conclude that we are less free than we think, but everyone with an education knows that, so what's the problem here?
Also just because you're only electrochemical reactions, I don't think it necessarily means we are 100% conditioned

[chrisearl]

I don't think dennett has ever really had a clue what he is on about, listened to him a few times here and there and he seems to have a total lack of any grasp about what is ment by "consciousness".

[annleland]

Dan got it right. He doesn’t deny subjective experiences, he wants us to go one step further and ask then what?

[rahulthakar]

Person who don't believe consciousness is not real goes on to prove his argument to me why he is absolutely right.. hmmm 🤔🤔
If consciousness is not real why don't he go to nearest wall and convince it. 😂

[doylesaylor]

I find Dennett conflates different sorts of positions in a way that confuses discussing consciousness. People don’t have to be perfect. His main argument is commonsense claims about consciousness is just plain wrong. And he has a repertoire of illusions to back up such claims. I find the existence of such unreal experiences in consciousness hardly convincing concerning knowing the real world. I have to know this world. How does pointing out unrealness in the human awareness of the world offers up an alternate practice that works better? Then Dennett conflates qualia which he knows is like saying we can never know what consciousness is with discussions about the realness of Cartesian theatre claim. One can’t both argue the realism character of consciousness and swing about the concept of qualia which says these discussions are unknowable.

[StuMas]

Our core self is not consciousness - it is awareness. Pure awareness uses the body and consciousness to be aware of itself and its life. The 'infinite regress' is a fallacy because the stream of perception terminates at awareness. The reason why it's so difficult to define is because, awareness cannot be anything of the things that it can be aware of.

[Godsen]

Daniel Dennett has been one of the most important philosophers of mind in the last 50 years. One can only bow to the dedication this man put into such a long career completely built on uttering bullsh*t about "consciousness is an illusion" and other contradictory catchphrases.

[luszczi]

Hint: if you think that Dennett makes some obvious mistake here, then you haven't though about this hard enough. Don't believe those who smugly dismiss him, they don't know any better. Try harder.

[willmosse]

His argument here does not say that the Cartesian Theatre is an illusion, it says it exists but is not causally-involved in the chain of perception and reaction. I.e. the Cartesian Theatre is an epi-phenomenon. That is a plausible position (though I don’t think we have any evidence for it). But for any understanding of human experience, we would still have to explain the arising of this non-causal Cartesian Theatre. What the bloody hell is it? How does it arise from consciously inert particles or neurones?

[dukeallen]

Get so frustrated at all the illusions perpetrated as facts, by majority and the establishment

Then I get this Dennett nugget and I’m good again for a while. Thanks

[adsffdaaf]

Why is it wrong old man? I'm not buying your book.

[ragingchimera]

Meh. He doesn't really say much of any interest or importance.

[notanemoprog]

Somebody please summarize Dennett in one sentence for me and then summarize debunking Dennett in the next.

[JeffChen]

Let's try to understand the Cartesian dualism with a new angle. The nature of consciousness is to misunderstand it when you are trying to use it consciously. It is apparent that there is distinctive demarcation line in the middle of the consciousness. non-intelligential consciousness and intelligential consciousness. Intellectural human beings will get lost inevitably by nothing but intelligent itself. The nature of intelligence is to invent some puzzlling boxes first and then playing around inside it. Languages, abstractive concepts, are good examples for such boxes.