#TUOE (The Uncertainty Of Existence) --- SynTalk

Published: Sept. 13, 2014, 7:19 p.m.

b'SynTalk thinks about the mystery of \'existence\' and \'consciousness\\u2019. In a sense the conversation alternates between perspectives vis-a-vis \\u200bhuman beings (meditative, wakeful, dreamy, comatose, paralysed, anaesthetised, unconscious, unarousable, dying, vegetative, & dead), a zygote, fictional characters, amoeba, bats, dust particles, \\u200btables, the sky, plants, \\u200band rocks. The concepts are\\u200b derived\\u200b off / from Descartes, William James, Heidegger, \\u200bFreud, Sartre, Turing, G\\xf6del, SN Bose, Chisholm, Libet, and \\u200bNagel, among others. What is the difference between \\u2018thing in itself\\u2019 and \\u2018thing for itself\\u2019? The difference between "I" and "me\\u201d, & a form of internal duality. Is there a hierarchy of consciousness (& how does it become aware of itself)? What is \'being dead\\u2019? How does one measure consciousness? We try to understand the difference between the living and the non-living. The degree of certainty, and its link with concepts of possibility, probability, & necessity. The necessity of a nervous system? Is death the loss of intelligence and adaptability? How is it possible to have non-conscious, semantic systems like machines? Does consciousness have any content? The links between Sodium Pentothal, neurotheology, precuneus, subjective certainty, apoptosis, and cogito ergo sum? The difference between consciousness and awareness, and the autonomy of thought from consciousness. \\u200bThe SynTalkrs are: Prof. Bijoy Boruah (philosophy, IIT Delhi, New Delhi), Dr. Priyedarshi Jetli (philosophy, (ex) Delhi University, Mumbai), and Dr. Deepak Ranade (neurosurgery, Pune)'