Evan Urquhart

@v_urq We understand pain behavior but we do not understand the conscious experience of pain. Responding to pain =/ pain itself

@transphilosophr Consciousness is a phenomenon that is not perfectly understood yet. Are you saying it cannot be and neither can transness?

@v_urq I'm saying consciousness is an unbovservabe yet very real psychological phenomenon that can be operationalized. Same for gender ID

@transphilosophr I don't necessarily believe that anything is unobservable. By me on the street, sure. But not inherently so.

@v_urq Quarks cannot be directly observed. We see their effects in bubble chambers but we cannot directly observe a quark

@transphilosophr Quarks either exist or our theories are wrong, they don't exist for some and not for others.

@v_urq The painfulness of my toothache only exists for me not for others. The epistemology of the mind is very different from physics

@transphilosophr Sure. And, we're investigating whether the cause of transness likely comes from the physical world, like tooth decay...