Is philosophy a uniquely human endeavour? (Venue A: Caffè Nero)

THE VENUE: Caffè Nero

Rain is currently forecast for Sunday but things may change. So, the default is to meet indoors but please look out for updates before you leave home.

When we meet inside, we run the same event in two locations: Caffè Nero and Starbucks, so as to provide capacity for as many people who would like to attend. Thus, there will be two events published, and you can choose which one to attend. Please don't sign up for both. This event is for the Nero location.

We meet upstairs at Caffè Nero. An organiser will be present from 10.45. We are not charged for use of the space so it would be good if everyone bought at least one drink.

An attendee limit has been set so as not to overwhelm the venue.

Etiquette
Our discussions are friendly and open. We are a discussion group, not a for-and-against debating society. But it helps if we try to stay on topic. And we should not talk over others, interrupt them, or try to dominate the conversation.

There is often a waiting list for places, so please cancel your attendance as soon as possible if you subsequently find you can't come.

WhatsApp groups
We have two WhatsApp groups. One is to notify events, including extra events such as meeting for a meal or a drink during the week which we don't normally put on the Meetup site. The other is for open discussion of whatever topics occur to people. If you would like to join either or both groups, please send a note of the phone number you would like to use to Richard Baron on: website.audible238@passmail.net. (This is an alias that can be discarded if it attracts spam, hence the odd words.)

THE TOPIC: Is philosophy a uniquely human endeavour?

Thank you to Miguel for this week's topic.

Imagine that sometime in the near future, we develop Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) or that we are visited by an intelligent alien species. An AGI will likely have at its disposal all knowledge known to humans and aliens will certainly be more technologically advanced than us. Both will be very different from us. The AGI will be an immortal disembodied entity and aliens might be made of the same atoms as us but will most likely be very distinct creatures.

Will either of these entities formulate philosophical question? Will they ask ‘why do I exist?’ or will they engage in discussions about consciousness, morality, or the nature of reality?

These questions become even more complex when we consider the possibility that philosophy itself might be a product of the particular structure and limitations of human language. For example, Wittgenstein argued that: "the limits of my language mean the limits of my world". If philosophical problems arise from the peculiarities of how we use language, then beings with radically different linguistic structures — or no language at all — might not encounter the same conceptual puzzles that have occupied human philosophers for millennia.

Cognitive science suggests that much of human reasoning is "embodied" — shaped by our particular physical form and sensorimotor experience. Philosophers like Maurice Merleau-Ponty argued that consciousness is fundamentally tied to bodily experience. If this is correct, then an immortal, disembodied AGI might literally be incapable of understanding human philosophical problems about mortality, physical suffering, or the relationship between mind and body.

Similarly, aliens with different sensory apparatus, social structures, or temporal experience might find human philosophical preoccupations as foreign or unintelligible as we find the problems of migrating birds. Would beings who naturally perceive time as cyclical rather than linear develop the same metaphysical puzzles about causation and free will?

If we can’t fully understand what it is like to be a bat (as in Nagel’s though experiment), perhaps other intelligent beings would not share a platform of mutual philosophical understanding.

Perhaps an additional question is whether philosophical conundrums are common to all human beings. The diversity of intelligence and cultures could suggest that we could find at least two human beings that don’t ask any of the same philosophical questions.

So, would and AGI or an alien sit with us on a Sunday morning to discuss philosophy? (And would we know ?)