(June 29, 2013 at 2:32 am)bennyboy Wrote:(June 28, 2013 at 9:47 pm)Walking Void Wrote: The logic makes for an easy answer: the mind is only associated with a living brain, unconscious or not. We do not look at rocks and from our studies find that, "oh! This rock has a mind!". Clearly. When the brain is no longer alive, no longer processing, it is safe to say that a mind that was dependent on the brain no longer processes: it ceases to continue.
There are no studies which show which objects, brain, rock or otherwise, possess the quality of mind (i.e. sentience). What we have is the fact that we only know about mind through reports of language-capable organisms, and the set of such organisms consists of exactly one type of animal. But the fact that other things SAY they are sentient isn't really sufficient proof to prove that they are, IMO.
Maybe all matter contains a kind of atomic sentience, along with its other properties. This would explain how a mechanical structure, the brain, can magically create something not mechanical-- subjective experience: it doesn't.
But unfortunately my attempts to interview rocks only result in meaningful conversations when my own brain and mind are altered in interesting ways.
You realize that sentience is only 1 of multiple properties of a mind, yes ? Feeling alone does not constitute for the label of mind. Feeling is not measurable outside of a brain or better yet, nervous organism. We can see which parts of that brain activate under different feelings-related influence. You can test pain on plants and animals but if You subject a rock to trauma You will only find trauma because neurologically, the rock is absent. It has no nervous system at all. Does the rock die ?
