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I (mis)understood the term as concerning essence, but it's clearly more interesting than that.
by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Mon Mar 8th, 2010 at 04:00:46 PM EST
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I once read a characterisation of qualia along the lines of "the question is not what it is like to be a bat, but what it is like for the bat to be a bat".

En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon Mar 8th, 2010 at 04:08:02 PM EST
[ Parent ]
"Interesting" in the way that metaphysics is interesting. Because it is very hard to communicate, operationaly the idea of "qualia" boils down to the impossibility of actually "putting yourself in someone else's shoes" if that someone else is very different from you (and not necessarily so different as a bat from a human).

En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Mar 10th, 2010 at 05:43:05 AM EST
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