RE: How do you people with long hair put it up?
April 21, 2018 at 7:58 am
(This post was last modified: April 21, 2018 at 7:59 am by Edwardo Piet.)
(April 20, 2018 at 10:58 pm)vulcanlogician Wrote: Why isn't the brain, brain stem, and nerves which connect to it the self? Or is it?
Again... semantics have to be sorted out. Before answering that question I have to ask "What do you mean by self?"
Trying to figure out 'what the self really is' is pointless because we have to define our terms first. I'm sure we agree on this. But the difference is it seems to me that it's that way with
everything not just the self. It doesn't make it any less of a valid metaphysical question because that would make
all metaphysical questions invalid because it's all 'just semantics'.
So, if what you mean by self is 'the brain, brain stem and the nerves which connect to it' then OF COURSE that's the self if that's how you define it lol.
The difference is... it seems to me that it's that way about EVERYTHING. If the meaning of the word "Apricot" was "Sun" then it would be correct to say that the apricot rises, sets and shines in the sky. Because we'd actually be talking about the sun and calling it an apricot.
But because it's clear that it would NOT be very helpful to call the sun an apricot... I think it makes it clear that debates aren't meaningless. And I am wildly against the "But it's just semantics" retort.
Just semantics?
This quote explains exactly what I'm getting at:
Quote:This may seem yet another “just semantic” issue, but I never understood why so many people hold semantics in such disdain. After all, semantics deals with the meaning of our terms, and if we don’t agree at least approximately on what we mean when we talk to each other there is going to be nothing but a confusing cacophony. As usual when I engage in “demarcation” problems, I don’t mean to suggest that there are sharp boundaries (in this case, between scientific theories and philosophical accounts), but rather that there is an interesting continuum and that people may have been insufficiently appreciative of interesting differences along such continuum.
Source:
http://rationallyspeaking.blogspot.co.uk...ucing.html