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by Todd MoodyAbstract—The most fundamental question that can be asked about consciousness is why it exists at all. Once asked, that question splits into two related questions: What causes consciousness, and what is it for? And it must be conceded at the outset that we don't know the answer to either question. Perhaps that should be the end of it, but of course it isn't, because we know enough to realize that both questions are not only unanswered but harder to answer, even in principle, than they may at first seem to be. At least one philosopher has argued that they are unanswerable by beings like us. I am not certain that he is right, but even if he is not, I don't think he overestimates the difficulty of the problems by much. The full paper is
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