> I think that consciousness (or rather the feeling of consciousness) is very related to continuous long-term memory storing.
Are you my surgeon? About six years ago I was to undergo somewhat novel surgery and the chappie asked if he could record the procedure, it being a research hospital and all). "Sure," I said, "if you can assure me I will feel no pain."
He said that he could not promise that, but they he could assure me I would not remember it even if it did.
And that's the alpha and the omega of my philosophizing. If I can't remember it happening, did it even? How does this map to criminal justice?
In the 1980s a philosopher named Stanly Cavell was asking whether surgeons could intentionally operate on people without pain-suppressing anethesia, provided the patient would remember nothing of it. Chapter-length discussions IIRC.
My simple reaction was always this: Yes it would affect the humanity of the surgeons themselves to do so.
I wouldn't be surprised if there is also a below-conscious-memory level of trauma memory as well, so superficial amnesia might not be enough for the patient to be "unaffected".
Are you my surgeon? About six years ago I was to undergo somewhat novel surgery and the chappie asked if he could record the procedure, it being a research hospital and all). "Sure," I said, "if you can assure me I will feel no pain."
He said that he could not promise that, but they he could assure me I would not remember it even if it did.
And that's the alpha and the omega of my philosophizing. If I can't remember it happening, did it even? How does this map to criminal justice?