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Mental life presents many holistic phenomena. Gestalt perception comes to mind as does the manifold of intentions—beliefs, desires, and actions—and the fabric of linguistic meanings. In this paper I want to argue that none of these wholes resist analysis except for conscious intentional attitudes. It seems we cannot get a theoretical grasp of the difference between tacit (unconscious or preconscious) beliefs, desires, etc. and conscious feeling-laden belief. As I shall endeavor to explain, perception, unconscious attitudes, linguistic competence, and even intellectual skills accompanied by raw feeling (kinesthetic sensation at the edge of attention while typing or playing a musical instrument) are explainable in principle within the computer paradigm. Conscious attitudes alone seem not to be explainable in such terms and are perhaps absolutely holistic.

DOI: 10.1007/978-94-009-4033-8_12

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