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    Humans invented physics. It's one of the more successful stories that we are telling ourselves about nature. Commented yesterday
  • Of course pain is real. The question is whether there is a phenomenal quality to pain. Pain leads to pain avoidance behavior in the sense that the stimulus that causes the supposed qualia of “pain” causes the physical reactions that correspond to this qualia to occur. The question is whether you need the extra “qualia” ingredient to explain this. Commented yesterday
  • I was not thinking of qualia. What matters is pain-awareness and first-person report. Without pain-awareness no pain-avoidance behaviour. Without first-person report, any scientific theory of pain does not get off the ground. Commented yesterday
  • @ScottRowe how do you differentiate between you just doing all the reactions to that pain and phenomenal pain itself? Commented yesterday
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    @ScottRowe I’m sorry to hear of that but we’re using functional to mean different things. The brain is not aware of a sense of purpose. There are many things in our body and brain that seem purposeless. But all “feelings” are connected to certain physical dispositions which is what I mean by function. Damaged nerve fibers have an altered disposition to fire. It’s “functional” the way a faulty smoke alarm is functional: it has a genuine physical disposition that still reliably produces an effect when triggered. Without that disposition, there would be no alarm, nor pain Commented 17 hours ago