Sound and Nihilism

[Angrboda]

This may be true, but like consciousness, until we have a model of how the brain creates meaning, it's pointless to say you're sure that it's in there.  Maybe once we map out all the functional parts of the brain and we find it's not in there.  What is your response then?  You have faith that the physicalist model of mind explains it, but without an actual model of how it explains it, your assurances aren't worth much.

Why would you believe it's not there?  What possible rationale could you have to expect that this time, believing the laws of the universe, is an issue of 'faith.'  

That's like saying "We can't be sure gravity is still going to be a thing tomorrow until tomorrow gets here and we test it out."  

I'm not saying I believe it's not there. I'm saying that, at this time, without a model of how meaning works in the brain, the explanation "braindidit" is as empty as "goddidit". You don't actually know how any of this works, so you're putting the cart before the horse, claiming the brain does it without knowing in any sense how it does it. If you have a model, please present it. However all you've given us is a nice sounding metaphor.

---

How about an alternative metaphor. Meaning is like an ant colony. No individual ant contains the instructions for building the ant nest, but the interaction of all the mindless ants results in a nest. What if meaning is like that? Something that occurs as a byproduct of meaningless activity, not in the brain, but in the social interactions of many individuals. Is this picture any less credible?

---