RE: Neurosurgeon Provides Evidence Against Materialism
June 13, 2019 at 12:08 pm
(This post was last modified: June 13, 2019 at 12:22 pm by The Grand Nudger.)
(June 13, 2019 at 3:25 am)ColdComfort Wrote: I read part of the article but professor-speak is tiresome. It's not mysterious that a non-physical essence can control behavior. Not to me anyway. It may be for Cartesians but from a hylomorphic view it makes perfect sense. Besides you can conduct this experiment in the comfort of your own home to prove the authors are wrong. Decide that in ten minutes you will do the chicken dance. Set the alarm. Unless you change your mind, or something like a fatal stroke intervenes, in ten minutes you will do the chicken dance. You could probably get the results published.
From what I read the authors are saying that when my attention is focused on an apple the brain 'computes' a 'schema' that I am aware my attention is on the apple. What insight! But that doesn't mean my experience of looking at an apple or being aware I'm looking at an apple is the same thing as whatever brain stuff the authors imagine is going on here. In fact they are very different things. The two things may correspond but they are not the same.
The insight (at least potentially) is that the schema isn't expected to contain information on how it operates, only that information that would be useful to it;s operation. You don't need to know what an individual neuron firing feels like, so you don't, and thus the schema necessarily wouldn't "feel like" a description of it's mechanical function.
You asked this question-
Quote:Now I'll concede the point for arguments sake that these sensations correspond to or are even caused by measurable activities in the brain. Still the sensation or thought you experience is something very different from the brain activity. No? Qualia the eggheads call them. This is obvious to me.The answer from AST is that it's obvious to all of us, as expressed so fantastically in the section I quoted for you...... but also wrong.
I'm interested in this home experiment, though. What is deciding that I'm going to do the chicken dance in ten minutes meant to demonstrate, which others are we proving wrong, and about what?
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
