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Bob ties himself in knots by assuming that consciousness is epiphenomenal. If in fact consciousness didn't do anything then it would be very weird to explain why we have it. But consciousness very obviously is not epiphenomenal, it is what allows us to navigate the world, achieve our needs and desires and helps us decide what we want and…
Bob ties himself in knots by assuming that consciousness is epiphenomenal. If in fact consciousness didn't do anything then it would be very weird to explain why we have it. But consciousness very obviously is not epiphenomenal, it is what allows us to navigate the world, achieve our needs and desires and helps us decide what we want and how to get it. There is no mystery, here. Consciousness evolved because we need it to survive. And that's why as far as we know all animals are conscious. Without consciousness animals and humans would not know what do do or even how to find a restaurant. This is so obviously the case that it is almost perverse to insist in the face of all the conscious decisions we make every minute of every day that consciousness doesn't do anything. If people could operate without consciousness then we could all be mindless zombies an inconceivable possibility. Because Bob starts out with epiphenomenalism he can't explain consciousness except as something that is evolutionarily superfluous. The reason he gets into this bind is because Bob is a determinist who doesn't believe in free will but instead thinks everything happens based on some primitive notion of cause and effect that denies us the choice of whether to go to McDonalds or Burger King. In Bob's view we don't have those choices. So Bob says no free will and consciousness doesn't do anything. But he concedes that the only way people who think "meaning" is something important can give their lives meaning is consciousness. Well yes obviously people decide on their own what meaning they think their lives have, if any. So having twisted himself in knots to avoid free will, Bob then comes back and claims that life has a universal purpose and we have to live out this purpose whether we like it or not. To summarize Bob believes that consciousness does nothing, there's no free will, life is teleological and is moving and evolving with some grand design and finally this teleology gives life its meaning. You cannot make this stuff up because Bob already did. But it's certainly a confusing muddle. The much more straightforward scientific view that consciousness evolved for the very good reason that we need it to survive dopes not appear to have occurred to him. Go figure.