RE: why do we enjoy poetry From the perspective of neuroscience?
January 9, 2019 at 1:36 pm
(This post was last modified: January 9, 2019 at 2:09 pm by Alan V.)
(January 6, 2019 at 6:28 pm)Belaqua Wrote: "Electrochemical events in the brain are perceived by the subject as experiences because it's an emergent property and someday we'll know why that is" is about the same.
No, electrochemical events in the brain are perceived by the subject as experiences because they are happening to the subject's body, to him or her. We won't understand it in the way you prefer because it doesn't reduce to simple explanations. This is implied by emergentism: New properties of a complex arrangement of matter like the human brain cannot be explained by simply examining its components working in isolation. In other words, they don't reduce to mere physics or even to component parts. Thus the orchestra analogy.
You may think you're making me look foolish, but you're making yourself look foolish to me for not understanding what emergentism implies.
What neither you nor Bennyboy seem to understand is that I am trying to provide my own interpretations of what I have read from scientific experts. In fact, I'm presently working on a summary of points from the book The Consciousness Instinct by Michael Gazzaniga to explain what I mean, since you obviously won't take it from me. I will likely post that within the week. If that doesn't help, I will stop trying to explain this subject to you.
The bottom line is that scientific experts do offer complex explanations for "Unraveling the Mystery of How the Brain Makes the Mind" -- the subtitle of the book. You and Bennyboy simply don't agree with them. Thus your overstated arguments against them.
