Science and love, music, art, etc. (The limitations of science)

by Mark , Tuesday, February 17, 2009, 19:40 (5756 days ago) @ George Jelliss

One fundamental truth, George, is that I am conscious. I have thoughts and subjective experiences. You said that "mind is just the activity of brain", which for me, and I think for most people, just doesn't face up to the "hard problem" (as it is called in the field of consciousness studies). - If my desk suddenly levitated, with the drawers opening and closing to the rhythm of Beethoven's Fifth, with no evident cause, it would pose a comparatively elementary problem. At least the phenomenon could be expressed in terms of mass, distance and time, and I could conceive that one day a physical explanatory mechanism could be found. But how can any description of the activity of my brain, in terms of physical science, ever demonstrate the existence of mind? That is why some serious scientists and philosophers, both theist and atheist, think that mind may be something fundamental, in the manner of space and time. And that is not to say that minds may be "disembodied". Clearly mind depends on the grey matter and in some way emerges from the grey matter, but I don't see how it can be reduced to grey matter. - So I think this is a serious problem. That is why David and I were "wittering" earlier. You have made an assertion that "mind is just the activity of brain". How about some argument in support?