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Originally Posted by maddog
Only how can you really be sure as an independant observer. How do you determine being concious without a way to communicate from being unconcious as in a coma?
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Maddog, from my latest post here [post #37], we may have something to work with to find an answer to your question.
We have established that intersubjectivity is necessary, unless we accept the world as being a big mass of goo. A direct consequence of intersubjectivity is that direct experimentation of another’s consciousness is impossible.
Furthermore, the exercise proposed in post #37 illustrates the only way the other’s subjectivity can be revealed to you. It happens by your awareness of yourself as being an object in the eyes of the other. The experience of your own objectivity is evidence of the presence of the other as a subject.
Now, in the scenario that you proposed, Maddog, the other is totally deprived of senses and means of communication—he is like in a coma—but may still be conscious. How can you find evidence of his consciousness.
As indicated above, the only evidence of the other’s consciousness is by experiencing his objectivation of you. The problem is that he has no way to know that you are there, by his bed. At least, he cannot even give a hint that he can sense your presence. Without a hint, without
his look, you cannot experience his objectivation of you, if it is there at all.
I propose the following conjecture:
Ontology cannot resolved the problem of detecting consciousness in a coma-like person.
That leaves us with epistemology and ethics as investigation approaches to the problem.
I suspect, however, that both approaches will not help our investigation either. Take the notorious—and sad—case of the brain-damaged Florida woman who is at the center of a right-to-die dispute between her husband and her parents. We can be fairly confident that all known investigation approaches to find consciousness in her have been exhausted. The failure to prove or disprove the presence of consciousness is evident.
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Originally Posted by Hav0k
the observer could monitor brain activity?
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This is indeed what they did. A court said a neurologist who had reviewed a CAT scan of Mrs. Schiavo's brain and an EEG has testified that most, if not all, of Mrs. Schiavo's cerebral cortex—the portion of her brain that allows for human cognition and memory—is either "totally destroyed or damaged beyond repair." Yet, these results did not appease half the state’s population, including Governor Bush.
This case has evolved way beyond the search for consciousness; it has become an ethical debate on what to do when search for consciousness fails to reach conclusive results.
(Note: Early in January, independent observers claimed that they have seen signs of consciousness in Mrs. Schiavo. This is still very much a case in progress.)
