(March 12, 2016 at 3:15 pm)MysticKnight Wrote: The central paradigm of contemporary psychology and neuroscience is that the mind = the brain.
This is taken for granted, but why believe it?
I see, hear, feel, smell and touch. I think, therefore I am. However, I am a 'brain-in-a-vat'. Everything I perceive is via my senses which is processed by the brain then I am aware of it. Without the brain (or this processing), there would be nothing to 'feed' my mind.
(Because of the 'brain-in-a-vat' issue, I cannot even know for sure that you even exist anymore than a figment of my imagination, which means that even my own body could be a figment of my imagination. Think 'dream'. For sake of argument, we will accept that you and I are 'real'.)
Let us start with the great apes. I would have to assume that they, as much as you and I, have a mind, although we have no way to test that scenario either. Now, if we assume dreaming requires a mind, then we have to assume cats and dogs have minds also. As this progresses down the animal tree, where would it stop? What of 'pre-brains'? Flatworms are know for their ability to learn and when dissected and fed to other flatworms, those other worms are able to respond as though they were taught the same maze/trick/whatever. So would they, the flatworms, have a mind, albeit not as 'vivid' as ours? What is a brain but memory and control? An amoeba can move and only has one cell. Is it a brain cell? Is it a muscle cell? Is it both? Does it have a mind? Does it have an awareness? It can find food and reproduce.
Why believe it? What is the alternative? Magic?
You make people miserable and there's nothing they can do about it, just like god.
-- Homer Simpson
God has no place within these walls, just as facts have no place within organized religion.
-- Superintendent Chalmers
Science is like a blabbermouth who ruins a movie by telling you how it ends. There are some things we don't want to know. Important things.
-- Ned Flanders
Once something's been approved by the government, it's no longer immoral.
-- The Rev Lovejoy
-- Homer Simpson
God has no place within these walls, just as facts have no place within organized religion.
-- Superintendent Chalmers
Science is like a blabbermouth who ruins a movie by telling you how it ends. There are some things we don't want to know. Important things.
-- Ned Flanders
Once something's been approved by the government, it's no longer immoral.
-- The Rev Lovejoy
