RE: An intro to my non-materialist view
May 30, 2017 at 10:19 am
(This post was last modified: May 30, 2017 at 10:21 am by The Grand Nudger.)
(May 30, 2017 at 12:32 am)Bunburryist Wrote: If you walk up to someone with a basic science background and ask them what "visual representations" in the brain represent, they will say something to the effect of "things it the world." To the average listener, it doesn't merely refer to This Experience, it says what it is and does, and implies a worldview. That's no neutral pointer. I don't think the neutral pointer concept is that complicated, nor is it in some way deceptive or vague. It does exactly what it's supposed to do - no more, no less. It refers, or "points to" to this experience we learn to call "the world," without implying a worldview. Sometimes if we want to understand new ideas and perspectives we can't be rigid and insist on using old concepts from different paradigms - we need to accept and use new concepts.
That someone has applied their favored concepts to a nuetral term does not make that neutral term any less neutral. A representationalist thinks that "this experience" is a representation, not "the world". They don't think that the experience of a ball is a ball, regardless of what a ball is made of.
If they are a materialist, they think it's a representation of a material world. If they are a magic fluffy god-thought-ist...they think it's a representation of magic fluffy god-thought. If they are dualists, they think it's a representation of some mix of both.
Ultimately, I'm only offering this because, from the outset, the way you've framed these questions they can only be applicable to some form of direct realism. All forms of representationalism have been omitted at the outset, since "the question" you're asking explicitly rejects that position without any consideration.
How neutral is that?
Personally, I have a strong suspicion that you aren't actually advocating for neutral pointers, but disguising your own propositions about this subject -as- neutral pointers. Don't get me wrong, I don't think that you're doing it intentionally.
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