What is it like to be a bat? And is there a difference between the consciousness of male and female bats? Thomas Nagel didn’t ask that second question. All of us only have our own experience of the world. So, comparing consciousness across any lines is difficult, though, not impossible, writes Sophie-Grace Chappell.
“What is it like,” a man might ask, “to be a woman?”
“Well, what is it like,” a woman might retort, “to be a man?”
What-is-it-like questions are always intriguing. And, some might add, impossible to answer. If a woman could say what it is like to be a man (or vice versa), that would mean that she could occupy his very viewpoint on the world. It would mean that his consciousness, his subjective viewpoint, could turn into her consciousness.
But how could that happen? My “subjective viewpoint” is not a literal viewpoint, like the summit of Arthur’s Seat, that I can occupy, or vacate to let you occupy. Nor is consciousness like a virtual-reality headset that anyone can wear. I can’t just hand over to you the eye-goggles and the ear-phones of my experience, so that you can experience as directly as I do what it is like to be me.
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