[MD] Direct Experience

[david buchanan]

Platt asked:
Do direct experience and consciousness mean the same thing? To put it another way, is consciousness necessary for direct experience? My answer to both is "Yes." Anybody agree?

dmb says:
Dewey talked about immediate experience in terms of "undergoing", "suffering" and "enjoying" rather than terms like "consciousness". We see this same distinction in the MOQ. Direct experience is called pre-intellectual while cognitive knowledge of the sort we associate with self conscious awareness is in the realm of static quality. As a radical empiricist, Dewey went to great pains to show how direct experience is just as real as the conceptualizations that follow. In other words, having an experience and knowing that you had an experience are two different things. 

 
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