Philosophy
Despite a long tradition of scholars and lay people thinking (and wishing) otherwise, modernity has revealed a paradigm of materialism in which even the mind is somehow reducible to, caused by, or sustained by physical brain processes. Ontological and epistemological distinctions sometimes make this relationship difficult to ascertain: for instance, one could make the metaphysical claim that brains produce minds without having to be committed to any particular epistemic claims about how this process takes place, or even about whether it could ever be understood.
The following discussion tries to make sense of the intellectual and technological obstacles that need to be overcome in order to provide a satisfactory theory about the nature and origin of mind. Two of the guests argue for conceptions of mind that transcend the physical body, and their vacuous arguments may get frustrating rather quickly, but things finally get moving when philosophers John Searle and David Chalmers get in on it. They disagree with each other, but at least they are interesting!
You want poetry? How about this:
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- Philosophy: Brain In A Vat Argument ? Truth Revealed
Brains in a vat? That sounds terrifying, doesn?t it? Brain in a vat argument is one of the newest thought experiments in philosophy of mind (discussed by John Pollock). Many people raise objection to the brain in a vat theory but are there in fact any...
- Substance Dualism
Although most philosophers of mind are probably physicalists, there is still a live debate about the ontological status of mind: is it physical or immaterial? On one side of the debate are those who argue that thoughts are not physical, and therefore...
- David Eagleman - The Brain And The Law
There is almost universal agreement among philosophers, neuroscientists, cognitive psychologists, and other mind researchers that the mind has a physical basis in the brain. Sure, we don't yet understand the particular mechanism through which the...
- Daniel Wolpert - The Real Reason For Brains
I know what you're thinking, but no, it's not for feeding zombies... but it's also not "for" thinking either because brains evolved long before any organism developed the ability to think and reason. So, while thinking is a great adaptation...
- John Searle - Beyond Dualism
Descartes' philosophical articulation and defense of psycho-physical dualism (the idea that the mind has an existence different and independent from the physical body), and the idea that the mind cannot be reduced to simple physical processes, have...
Philosophy
Do Brains Make Minds?
Despite a long tradition of scholars and lay people thinking (and wishing) otherwise, modernity has revealed a paradigm of materialism in which even the mind is somehow reducible to, caused by, or sustained by physical brain processes. Ontological and epistemological distinctions sometimes make this relationship difficult to ascertain: for instance, one could make the metaphysical claim that brains produce minds without having to be committed to any particular epistemic claims about how this process takes place, or even about whether it could ever be understood.The following discussion tries to make sense of the intellectual and technological obstacles that need to be overcome in order to provide a satisfactory theory about the nature and origin of mind. Two of the guests argue for conceptions of mind that transcend the physical body, and their vacuous arguments may get frustrating rather quickly, but things finally get moving when philosophers John Searle and David Chalmers get in on it. They disagree with each other, but at least they are interesting!
You want poetry? How about this:
Roses are red,If you don't think the the mind depends on the brain, see what happens when you cut the brain in half.
Violets are blue,
Skepticism about a transcendent, special self
Makes people like you go boo-hoo!
.
- Philosophy: Brain In A Vat Argument ? Truth Revealed
Brains in a vat? That sounds terrifying, doesn?t it? Brain in a vat argument is one of the newest thought experiments in philosophy of mind (discussed by John Pollock). Many people raise objection to the brain in a vat theory but are there in fact any...
- Substance Dualism
Although most philosophers of mind are probably physicalists, there is still a live debate about the ontological status of mind: is it physical or immaterial? On one side of the debate are those who argue that thoughts are not physical, and therefore...
- David Eagleman - The Brain And The Law
There is almost universal agreement among philosophers, neuroscientists, cognitive psychologists, and other mind researchers that the mind has a physical basis in the brain. Sure, we don't yet understand the particular mechanism through which the...
- Daniel Wolpert - The Real Reason For Brains
I know what you're thinking, but no, it's not for feeding zombies... but it's also not "for" thinking either because brains evolved long before any organism developed the ability to think and reason. So, while thinking is a great adaptation...
- John Searle - Beyond Dualism
Descartes' philosophical articulation and defense of psycho-physical dualism (the idea that the mind has an existence different and independent from the physical body), and the idea that the mind cannot be reduced to simple physical processes, have...