Contra Metaphysical Idealism

[Angrboda]

If you say ideas, you've just replaced one undefined term with another. What is an idea, where does it live, what is its substance, and how do you know whether or not all experiences are of the same kind of stuff?

What stuff are quarks made of? What is energy made of? How about time and space? Where did the Big Bang singularity exist?

Our description for what energy is consists of very precise mathematical descriptions of its behavior. We can predict how it will behave based on this description. We can explain the behavior of higher-level phenomena by reducing them to this level of description. Saying that stuff is made of "ideas" has none of these qualities. Do you have a model of how 'ideas' behave, or is it just a one size fits all placeholder? We can describe energy and quarks by their behavior. What does the description of an idea look like?

I'd like to get your thoughts on split-brain subjects. In split-brain patients, the bundle of fibers connecting both halves of the brain is severed. Because the nerves of the body cross over from right to left and vice versa when connecting to the hemispheres, the left brain controls the right hand, and each hemisphere "sees" only one half of the visual field. Thus, the left brain only sees the right side, and the right brain only sees the left side. This allows the experimenter to individually interrogate the left and right hemispheres of the brain. In one experiment, the right brain sees a snow storm. Upon being asked to point to a relevant picture among a set of images, his left hand (controlled by the right brain) points at a shovel. When asked why he is pointing at the shovel, the language center in the left brain makes up a verbal answer based on what it saw (a chicken foot, and his hand pointing at the shovel) which is obviously just a confabulation.



http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/capsules...leu06.html

It would appear, superficially, that there is separate awareness in the left and right hemispheres of a split-brain patient. What is your explanation of these results? Was the original experiencer split into two experiencers? Is one a real experiencer and the other a zombie? Is it possible that neither are experiencers? Is the whole brain itself connected to experiencing because it is made of ideas? What is the explanation of this phenomena under your view?