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Philosophy

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    It is hard to answer, mainly due to the fact that we do not know what consciousness is for living creature.
    – Mauro ALLEGRANZA
    Commented Oct 23, 2023 at 15:44
  • @Mauro ALLEGRANZA To come to terms with consciousness is to ask nature. To pose questions to nature means to design experiments about mental processes. Such experiments check and correct our prejudices. And that’s what neuroscience does with some success. - I know that’s only a rough picture of scientific progress :-)
    – Jo Wehler
    Commented Oct 23, 2023 at 18:26
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    Define 'living', & 'consciousness', & you'll have your answer.
    – CriglCragl
    Commented Oct 23, 2023 at 22:51
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    Despite the vagueness of "consciousness" and "life", "if conscious then alive" seems pretty close to analytic truth on common meaning of those words. Panpsychists attribute some sort of proto-consciousness to all objects, animate or inanimate. Then the question becomes whether one is also a panvitalist, i.e. attributes some sort of proto-life to all of them as well, which seems natural.
    – Conifold
    Commented Oct 23, 2023 at 23:09
  • What is consciousness? I think that is the open question right now. If you choose the right definition then your phone could probably be considered conscious, but is that what you want your definition to include. And what is life? If you require self replicating then we could just choose a sterile person and you have your answer
    – N A McMahon
    Commented Oct 24, 2023 at 7:58