On naturalism and consciousness

[Mudhammam]

I think I have to agree with Benny on this; the mind as arising from a complex configuration of objects, that in conjunction with one another form a subject that can in turn experience itself as a subject-apprehending-those-objects,

You just described a staggering array of mechanical systems currently in use. My children have toys that can do this. You'll have to add some special sauce somewhere, to separate what my kids toys do from what we do. They "just are" different, etc etc. The problem isn't that we can't explain something like mind with any current theory, it's that we can't determine which - if any- of the current theories about mind -apply to human minds-.

Rhythm, your children do not have toys that have "personal feelings" or "sensuous experiences." If they do, you'd better make sure your children treat them with the utmost respect and care!

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Aye... neither is the mind as an independent entity from the physical brain.

We just don't know really. I'm not saying I think a mind can exist independent of physical properties, as in floating along in a vacuum of some sort, but that they may be interdependent on one another in ways a that purely physical analysis of matter and energy cannot account for, I think that is at least an open possibility until further loose threads are more tightly bound together.

Actually, if any of these views is to be properly explained by any model of physics, the emergent mind seems to be the only possibility.

Perhaps, but then is there a universal law of nature that says "when matter and energy configure into X, you get mind?" How fundamental to the Cosmos is this law?