[FRIAM] experience monism

[Nicholas Thompson]

David,

Thank you David for helping me think.  I don't know about anybody else, but
your questions certainly tend to my edification.  I am going to take them
for coffee and try to answer them, if only for my self.

You are VERY, VERY kind.

NIck

On Sat, Feb 4, 2023 at 8:46 AM Prof David West <profwest at fastmail.fm> wrote:

> The eloquence and perspicacity of Professor Thompson has convinced me to
> become an *Experience* monist. In my naive sophomoric enthusiasm I have
> set about writing THE definitive work on *Experience*. But I have a few
> questions ...
>
> 1) Is an *Experience* a whole or a composite? I.e., (scent of
> cinnamon)—(heat of oven)—(grandmother's smile) OR (scent of cinnamon) +
> (heat of oven) + (grandmothers smile)? Another analogy a single photograph
> or a Photoshopped collage?
>    1A) If an *Experience* is is a composite- there must be 'atomic'
> *Experience* from which it is composed. Is it possible to *Experience*
> and "atomic *Experience*" in isolation?
>
> 2) Does an *Experience* have duration, or is each *Experience* akin to a
> frame of a film and continuity simply an artifact of being presented at
> some rate; e.g., 30 frames per nanosecond?
>
> 3) Can *Experiences* be differentiated as "potential" and "actual?" To
> illustrate: I turn on the camera on my phone and images pass through the
> lens and appear on the screen, but a photograph does not come into
> existence until I press the shutter button. Does something similar happen
> with experience? They are potential until I "press the conscious awareness
> button" at which point they become actual?
>
> 4) Can *Experiences* be categorized? To borrow vocabulary (somewhat
> tortured( from Peter Sjostedt-Hughes' pentad of perception;
>
>    - *Experience* grounded in/originating from the spatio-temporal
>    environment (Sensed Experience)
>    - *Experience* of an atemporal quality, e.g., color or scent
>    (Perceived Experience)
>    - An *Experience* partly caused by an external physicality—e.g.,
>    motion of molecules partly causative of the *Experience* of heat
>    (Ecto-Physical Experience)
>    - An *Experience* that is partly caused by an internal
>    physicality—e.g., synapses firing in the brain (Endo-Physical Experience)
>    - *Experiences* not grounded in/originating from the spatio-temporal
>    environment, e.g., imaginations (Demeteption Experience)
>    - A sixth, of my own, a variation of Endo-Physical, where the internal
>    physicality is "disrupted," e.g., by taking a drug.
>
> 5) Does *Experience* 'exist' apart from an experiencer?
>     5A) if not, how can we have "common experiences"
>     5B) if yes, do we not have a faux monism, with two metaphysical
> things: experience and experiencer?
>
> 6) Do *Experiences* persist? Perhaps as memories?
>     6A) If yes, what exactly is the difference between an *Experience*-in-"memory"
> and one "being experienced?" Analogy to a computer program executing and
> the same program stored on disk.
>
>
> I would have asked Professor Thompson these questions, but I fear he would
> have dismissed them as "tending not to edification."
>
> davew
>
>
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