From Alan Atkinson
As part of your “Nine big brain questions” special (3 April, p 26), Celeste Biever made a reference to the familiar problem that we “have no way of proving we are not the only self-aware individuals in a world of unaware ‘zombies'”. I have often wondered why this doubt persists when there is a cogent argument for accepting the consciousness of others.
The only knowledge we have of the nature of consciousness is our own direct personal experience of it. A zombie, lacking consciousness, could not have any comprehension of conscious experience, in the same way that a person blind from birth supposedly has no understanding of colour. This would mean that a zombie would be unable to discuss the subject with a conscious entity.
Since we discuss consciousness with other people, we have good reason to believe that they are as conscious as we are.
From Anna Wood
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The link between the mind and body is interesting and complex, but Linda Geddes should take care when asserting that the wise doctor should “probe the mental state of a patient whose symptoms are hard to explain physically”. In fact, it is an arrogant doctor who will do this without being mindful of the deficiencies in medical knowledge.
It is naive to believe that we understand everything about the human body, and unacceptable that an absence of certain physical symptoms automatically makes the patient mentally ill. In the past, people with multiple sclerosis and diabetes have been wrongly given a psychological diagnosis, simply because doctors could not find anything physically wrong with them. Today it is patients with ME (myalgic encephalitis) who suffer this mistreatment.
Rather than assuming a diagnosis of mental illness, the wise doctor will diagnose both physical and psychological illness according to available evidence – and be prepared to admit that he or she does not know the answer when the necessary evidence is lacking.
Glasgow, UK
Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, UK
