(March 18, 2016 at 7:39 pm)Panatheist Wrote: Little monkey, how do you suggest that we observe the mind scientifically?
We already do that in some ways with MRIs, mapping mental activities to brain regions. We can also do it on a statistical basis, generating a bell-curve of responses along the human spectrum of behavior, such that we can define, and treat, such mental illnesses as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder with chemical therapy.
Brainwashing, in the original sense of the word, could be seen in a few Korean War veterans. Did the North Koreans change the minds of these American soldiers? Can we get out a ruler and measure it? Of course not. But that is not the only yardstick of scientific inquiry. The mind is complex and nebulous enough that we are still, in this day and age, gathering data points so that we can even know what questions to ask at all. But that doesn't mean it is immune to scientific inquiry; it only means that the journey has just started.
I'm not big on indulging God-of-the-Gaps thinking, myself.