Identity (Identity)

by dhw, Friday, August 21, 2009, 13:12 (5355 days ago) @ George Jelliss

George is "happy to identify the mind with the activity of the brain." - BBella believes that thoughts travel through airwaves. George points out that such claims have no basis in science. - I have no difficulty understanding that without the brain, I will have no consciousness, emotion, imagination, reason, thoughts, memory etc. Without a TV set, I won't receive sound or picture. But the TV set isn't the source of the sounds or pictures, any more than the primary auditory cortex and the primary visual cortex are. Sensory impressions come from outside and are processed within the posterior cortex, and these processes are automatic. The frontal lobe is the seat of all our planning and our abstract thinking, but where do the thoughts and control of thoughts come from? These are not automatic processes. So what intentionally switches the processes on and off, and what controls them? The answer, of course, is "I" do, but this is the focus of our discussion. Is the "I" nothing more than my cerebral cortex? I looked up "cerebral cortex" on Wikipedia: it's "a structure within the brain that plays a key role in memory, attention, perceptual awareness, thought, language, and consciousness." Playing a key role does not constitute the whole show. I'm trying to find out what is involved in actually running the show. - BBella's concept also makes us into receivers not only of sensory impressions but also of thoughts. Even if George is right, and all these processes are purely physical, I don't see why at least theoretically the impulses of thought shouldn't join all the other waves rushing through the air, but as with theories like abiogenesis, I'm inclined to wait till science comes up with some proof. However, if one did accept the idea of thought waves, they still wouldn't explain the origin of thoughts. A Universal Intelligence thinking for all of us is no less mysterious than brain cells creating as well as controlling our thoughts, especially if the UI doesn't understand the process either! - As for your own mysterious connections, the fact that "the experiences you describe are subjective" doesn't disturb me as much as it does George, since I'm far more open to accepting personal experience as evidence. In any case, it seems to me that ultimately we CAN only base beliefs on subjective factors. Belief that science will one day come up with all the answers is also subjective. Whether we can convince others is another matter, but that's why we're having these discussions.