[Wittrs] Re: Defining Consciousness -- Can we, and if so what is it?

From: "Stuart W. Mirsky" <SWMirsky@xxxxxxx>
To: Wittrs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2009 00:59:42 -0000

--- In Wittrs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, kirby urner <kirby.urner@...> wrote:
>
> On Mon, Aug 10, 2009 at 12:08 PM, Stuart W. Mirsky<SWMirsky@...> wrote:
> 
> > I'm using "mind" as we normally do: "When I think of X, I have X in mind";
> > "My mind is all confused"; "I have a certain image in my mind"; "A person
> > who is brain dead no longer gives evidence of having a mind"; etc.
> >
> 
> Some subtle departures here I think:
> 
> Wouldn't you say "I'm confused" vs. "My mind is confused" 

Depends. If I was reporting on my state of mind while under the influence I'd 
probably speak of "my mind" but it would be interchangeable with "I".



>and "I have
> this image" vs "I have this image in my mind"?
> 

I very often speak of an image in my head or in my mind, to make clear that it 
is nothing I am seeing in the observable world.


  
> "I'll keep that in mind" is common.  A "keep" was also the hard target
> at the center of a castle, surrounded by a moat, not to mention a wall
> (ramparts, with holes for shooting out arrows or simply watching the
> scene).  This adds to the idea of "mind" as a "castle" and indeed the
> "memory palace" literature is highly developed thanks to Giordano
> Bruno, Matteo Ricci and many others too numerous to mention here on
> this Wittgenstein list.
> 
> The grammar is such that we're like "mind puppets" (our minds are what
> get made up, when we decide to take action) whereas in the old days
> maybe we were more like "possessed" by a succession of spirits (demons
> if unwanted), resulting exorcism after exorcism (like repeated visits
> to the body shop, underwriters getting impatient...) or finally death
> at the stake if the authorities got really frustrated (women with
> contradictory discourse were especially unwelcome in some patriarchal
> small villages -- safer for "smart mouths" to move to a big city or
> stay in the forest, if English at least).
> 
> Kirby
>

Yes, lots of locutions, ways of speaking. I was offering Cayuse examples of how 
I was using "mind", that's all. Nothing too heavy there.

SWM

References:
- [Wittrs] Re: Defining Consciousness -- Can we, and if so what is it?
  - From: kirby urner

[Wittrs] Re: Defining Consciousness -- Can we, and if so what is it?

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