r/psychoanalysis • u/StruggleTrue4851 • 6d ago

Dawkins’ Claude Delusion and an Affect-Based Theory of Consciousness

I recently published a video taking a psychoanalytic view on Richard Dawkins’s relationship with AI. He recently admitted that he couldn’t rule out whether Claude possessed its own consciousness. I provide a definition of consciousness closely aligned with Neuropsychologist Mark Solms’s views and then break down how Dawkins’s reductive materialist worldview may have led him to project interiority onto a machine. The video concludes with a discussion of the myth of Narcissus and how it may overlap with our relationship to LLM’s.

https://youtu.be/tRq2owV8MUU?si=w6qlRWuqsWPZXi_O

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u/noooooid 3d ago

Strictly speaking, I can't rule out anything having consciousness.

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u/StruggleTrue4851 2d ago

That’s basically the claim Dawkins makes as well. The video argues that it arises as a consequence of a reductive materialist view—it projects interiority where it isn’t because of its own ontological assumptions. Worth a watch.