Reply
Sat 10 Sep, 2016 07:59 am
If I remove "it" from "something that it is like" to make it become "something that is like", will the meaning remain the same for the sentence it is in?
Thanks in anticipation.
Context:
In such cases, each hemisphere might well have its own beliefs. Consider what this says about the dogma-widely held under Christianity and Islam-that a person's salvation depends upon her believing the right doctrine about God. If a split-brain patient's left hemisphere accepts the divinity of Jesus, but the right doesn't are we to imagine that she now harbors two immortal souls, one destined for the company of angels and the other for an eternity in hellfire?
The question of whether there is "something that it is like" to be the right hemisphere of a split-brain patient must be answered in the only way that it is ever answered in science: We can merely observe that its behavior and underlying neurology are sufficiently similar to that which we know to be correlated with consciousness in our own case.
You cannot remove 'it' and still preserve the meaning. The complete phrase "it is like" is used in expressions like "what it is like" and refers to an experience or state of being.
John told me what it is like to be poor; I wonder what it is like to be married; We all know what it is like to be tired and hungry.
'The question of whether there is "something that it is like" to be the right hemisphere of a split-brain patient' could be rewritten as 'The question of whether there is a describable mental state corresponding to that experienced by right hemisphere of a split-brain patient'.
@oristarA,
Thomas Nagel first presented that formulation in his paper,
"What is it like to be a Bat?". "But no matter how the form may vary, the fact that an organism has conscious experience at all means, basically, that there is something it is like to be that organism."
There's a discussion on the grammaticality of that wording
here.
@contrex,
Quote:....describable mental state...
Thanks Con for that translation. I couldn't figure it out at all
@contrex,
contrex wrote:
You cannot remove 'it' and still preserve the meaning. The complete phrase "it is like" is used in expressions like "what it is like" and refers to an experience or state of being.
John told me what it is like to be poor; I wonder what it is like to be married; We all know what it is like to be tired and hungry.
'The question of whether there is "something that it is like" to be the right hemisphere of a split-brain patient' could be rewritten as 'The question of whether there is a describable mental state corresponding to that experienced by right hemisphere of a split-brain patient'.
I used to think that in the structure "what
it is like to be poor",
it was virtual and represented the real subject "to be poor":
So "what it is like to be poor" means "to be poor is like what" to me. I am not sure whether I've been on the right track.
@InfraBlue,
InfraBlue wrote:
Thomas Nagel first presented that formulation in his paper,
"What is it like to be a Bat?". "But no matter how the form may vary, the fact that an organism has conscious experience at all means, basically, that there is something it is like to be that organism."
There's a discussion on the grammaticality of that wording
here.
I'm reading the discussion there.
Selected Answer
Stumble It!
Tweet This
Bookmark on Delicious
Share on Facebook
Share on MySpace