Re: MD Individuality

From: Scott R (jse885@spinn.net)
Date: Sun Nov 17 2002 - 01:49:58 GMT

  • Next message: Trivik Bhavneni: "Re: MD Individuality"

    John,

    Do you know of any experiment that distinguishes between a TV model of the
    brain (that is, that the brain organizes awareness) over a computer model
    (that the brain originates awareness)?

    - Scott

    ----- Original Message -----
    From: "John Maher" <jozabad2001@yahoo.co.uk>
    To: <moq_discuss@moq.org>
    Sent: Saturday, November 16, 2002 5:00 PM
    Subject: RE: MD Individuality

    > Hi Patrick,
    >
    > YOU WROTE:
    > > With all due respect, aren't the neural events we
    > > can 'see' in the
    > > laboratory totally different things than our
    > > cognitions? To me they are
    > > as irreduciable to each other as wood is to marmer.
    > > They're simply two
    > > different things. They have no obvious relationship
    > > as between 'sound
    > > and grooves'. If you think there is, show me!
    >
    > With equal respect, they are not totally different
    > things and they do have an obvious relationship.
    > Indeed if one maintains otherwise then one is simply
    > being blind to cognitive neuroscience:
    >
    > ". . . in 1880 only the rudiments of neural
    > functioning were understood, and a reasonable person
    > could have doubted that all experience arises from
    > quivering nerve tails. But no longer. . . . The
    > evidence is overwhelming that every aspect of our
    > mental lives depends entirely on physiological events
    > in the tissues of the brain."
    > (Stephen Pinker - The Blank Slate - 2002 - BCA - pg
    > 41)
    >
    > "Every emotion and thought gives off physical signals
    > and the new technologies for detecting them are so
    > accurate that they can literally read a persons mind
    > and tell a neuroscientist whether the person is
    > imagining a place or a face."
    > (Ibid pg42)
    >
    > This is not a matter of faith, it is scientific fact
    > reproduced in experiment after experiment and attested
    > to in peer reviewed journals.
    >
    > Most neuroscientists I have looked at would not agree
    > with your description of their findings. Worse, your
    > out of hand dismissal of monist understandings (simply
    > calling them 'word games' is not an argument BTW)
    > makes it almost pointless to give you contemporary
    > non-Cartesian philosophers (of which there are
    > dozens)simply because you have already decided that
    > they are closet dualists. But, being one who prefers
    > science to philosophy I would suggest Pinker as a
    > start.
    >
    > John
    >
    >
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