>But defining intelligence and consciousness is difficult because you have to define it in a way that includes everything we agree is conscious and excludes everything we agree is not.
I think this is extremely important, but I would say that methodologically, messy definitions can nevertheless be stepping stones that bring us closer to full comprehension of definitions. I suppose I just have a specific hobby horse in this context and I don't know that I'm responding to you so much as a general idea I've seen elsewhere, that you're rhyming with, which is this idea that research has to start from agreed upon definitions.
I would say instead that there are such things as characteristic instances that embody lots of the stuff we are interested in, such that we can say "whatever consciousness is, it involves that" and we can just point to something that's a wild, underdefined phenomenon, and make it subject of study. Without a definition, I can still understand that states of mind that involve, say, wakeful awareness and intention are going to be about consciousness. We can know necessary conditions even if we don't know "sufficient" conditions, and the former are a stepping stone to comprehending the latter.
I think this is extremely important, but I would say that methodologically, messy definitions can nevertheless be stepping stones that bring us closer to full comprehension of definitions. I suppose I just have a specific hobby horse in this context and I don't know that I'm responding to you so much as a general idea I've seen elsewhere, that you're rhyming with, which is this idea that research has to start from agreed upon definitions.
I would say instead that there are such things as characteristic instances that embody lots of the stuff we are interested in, such that we can say "whatever consciousness is, it involves that" and we can just point to something that's a wild, underdefined phenomenon, and make it subject of study. Without a definition, I can still understand that states of mind that involve, say, wakeful awareness and intention are going to be about consciousness. We can know necessary conditions even if we don't know "sufficient" conditions, and the former are a stepping stone to comprehending the latter.