[Wittrs] Re: Understanding Dualism
- From: "BruceD" <blroadies@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: wittrsamr@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2010 04:53:55 -0000
--- In Wittrs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "gabuddabout" <wittrsamr@...> wrote:
> What Bruce is getting at is simply his notion of having power to do
and think things
> regardless of a story as to how the brain causes consciousness.
You have said nice things about me, so I don't want to appear
ungrateful, but "regardless" is too strong. Sacks has some very
illuminating things to say about what it means to be human (having power
to do and think things) which are informed by how the brain works. So,
the story of our mental live ought not be divorced from the story of how
the brain works. Hence...I agree.
> But this isn't an argument/can't be an argument against the thesis
that the brain causes/realizes cons. in some synchronically causal way
Right! That the brain story is different from the mind story should not
imply that these two different stories are totally unrelated (Chalmer's
Gap?). What interests me is the relationship. Please don't see me as
picking on words. But "cause" and "realizes" have different connotations
for me. Just what is it you are saying?
> the philosophical account is indeed a sort of identity theory without
ontological reduction.
My limited understanding is this: If brain and mind are conceived of as
two different somethings, irreducible to one another, then they can't be
placed in a causal relationship, as conventionally understood. I don't
know whether one can "realize" the other because I can't get a purchase
on how "realizing" operates.
Budd, I think you really get the "autonomy of mind" part of what I'm
saying. But there is another part. I rather doubt that the brain/mind
relationship is best grasped in mechanical terms as two things working
together or apart. In a sense, I'm closer to Stuart than he is to
himself. While he says "the mind isn't an entity", he is happy with
making the mind a product of an entity (brain). In contrast, I agree the
mind isn't an entity, so can't be conceived as product.
In my thinking, our mind is best conceived as an instrument whose
performance is informed, limited, shaped by how our brains have
involved.
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