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p.MsoNormal,p.MsoNoSpacing{margin:0}</style></head><body><div style="font-family:Arial;">The eloquence and perspicacity of Professor Thompson has convinced me to become an <b>Experience</b> monist. In my naive sophomoric enthusiasm I have set about writing THE definitive work on <b>Experience</b>. But I have a few questions ...<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">1) Is an <b>Experience</b> 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?<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"> 1A) If an <b>Experience</b> is is a composite- there must be 'atomic' <b>Experience</b> from which it is composed. Is it possible to <b>Experience</b> and "atomic <b>Experience</b>" in isolation?<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">2) Does an <b>Experience</b> have duration, or is each <b>Experience</b> akin to a frame of a film and continuity simply an artifact of being presented at some rate; e.g., 30 frames per nanosecond?<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">3) Can <b>Experiences</b> 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?<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">4) Can <b>Experiences</b> be categorized? To borrow vocabulary (somewhat tortured( from Peter Sjostedt-Hughes' pentad of perception;<br></div><ul><li style="font-family:Arial;"><b>Experience</b> grounded in/originating from the spatio-temporal environment (Sensed Experience)<br></li><li style="font-family:Arial;"><b>Experience</b> of an atemporal quality, e.g., color or scent (Perceived Experience)<br></li><li style="font-family:Arial;">An <b>Experience</b> partly caused by an external physicality—e.g., motion of molecules partly causative of the <b>Experience</b> of heat (Ecto-Physical Experience)<br></li><li style="font-family:Arial;">An <b>Experience</b> that is partly caused by an internal physicality—e.g., synapses firing in the brain (Endo-Physical Experience)<br></li><li style="font-family:Arial;"><b>Experiences</b> not grounded in/originating from the spatio-temporal environment, e.g., imaginations (Demeteption Experience)<br></li><li style="font-family:Arial;">A sixth, of my own, a variation of Endo-Physical, where the internal physicality is "disrupted," e.g., by taking a drug.<br></li></ul><div style="font-family:Arial;">5) Does <b>Experience</b> 'exist' apart from an experiencer?<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"> 5A) if not, how can we have "common experiences"<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"> 5B) if yes, do we not have a faux monism, with two metaphysical things: experience and experiencer?<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">6) Do <b>Experiences</b> persist? Perhaps as memories?<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"> 6A) If yes, what exactly is the difference between an <b>Experience</b>-in-"memory" and one "being experienced?" Analogy to a computer program executing and the same program stored on disk.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">I would have asked Professor Thompson these questions, but I fear he would have dismissed them as "tending not to edification."<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">davew<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div></body></html>