[MD] Individual=subjective?

[Ham Priday]

David, Marsha --


[DM asks]:
> In the MOQ is there a distinction between the existence
> of individuals and subjectivity? Can one exist without the other?

[Marsha responds]:
> If an individual were brain damaged with no brain activity,
> but family and friends still had a relationship with that body,
> would those inorganic and biological patterns suffice as
> an individual?  Patterns, and even clusters of patterns are
> interrelated, so I would say yes.  But I look forward to
> hearing what others think.

I can't speak for the MOQ, of course.  But individuals exist as objects for 
others.  Since knowledge is derived from experience, you cannot know me as a 
"subject".  So, in that sense, my body would be an individual object to you, 
whether it is alive or dead.

Now, if by "individual" David means a cognizant person, then subjectivity is 
implied by definition, and he makes a reasonable deduction that the 
individual he experiences objectively has subjectivity -- i.e., is aware of 
him/herself existing in the same space/time world as David does.

This may seem like a simplistic question, but it is of profound significance 
to epistemology and philosophy.  For example, it raises other questions, 
such as: Are animals capable of deducing that other creatures are subjective 
entities, or only that they "behave" independently of other animated 
objects?  If a robot is constructed with all of the physical and behavioral 
attributes of a human being -- and this is not beyond AI technology -- would 
we infer that it was a subjective being?

Subjectivity is the most precious thing we possess.  And yet it is not an 
"object"; it can't be localized, observed, or quantified.  We identify it 
with a particular person, and assume that it is what constitutes and 
motivates that person, but this assumption can be no more than a deduction 
on our part, since it cannot be empirically defined.  We make fun of 
Descartes' Cogito: 'I think, therefore I am'.  But we can only know this 
truth subjectively.  Proprietary awareness is the profoundest of all 
mysteries because, although it is the seat of consciousness, it is negated 
from being.

We cannot prove that subjectivity exists.  Which is why, for the radical 
empiricist, it must be explained away as a myth.

--Ham