From: Joao (joaocs@sapo.pt)
Date: Mon Jan 27 2003 - 22:19:31 GMT
> Steve:
> I don't understand how the MOQ dissolves the mind-body problem. As I
> understand it, the mind-body problem is the question of how my willing my
> hands to type causes my hands to type. Is that right? Could you explain.
The mind and the body split in the XVII century. Descartes based his
conception of nature on the division between the "res cogitans" "thinking
thing" and the "res extensa", the "extense thing". Now, mind is seen not as
a "thing", but as a process. Remember one of Pirsig's most powerful
metaphors, the software running on the hardware. The mind (thing), or
cognition (process), includes all perception, emotions and behavior. In a
broader sense, it includes all interactions of a living being with the
environment, organizing all activity, including the metabolism. This expands
the mind from the brain to all our body. As our organizing activity,
cognition is, in a certain sense, life itself. Not to be confused with
intellect.
> Steve:
> If the levels are discrete we should be able to identify the exact instant
> when the social level comes into existence. How would you recognize it?
The social level begins with conscience, with a basic experience of
perception, sensation and emotion. The intellectual level begins with
self-conscience, a notion of oneself as a thinking subject. Intellect may be
the whole of the self-conscient cognitive processes, maybe those based on
language and image. And smell too. Centuries ago, smelling was as important
as seeing ou hearing.
Hope this makes sense to you
Joao
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