Different in degree or kind: An essay captures Adler (Introduction)

by dhw, Tuesday, November 17, 2015, 18:00 (3294 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: What part of each human controls the brain is a mystery. It's the usual business of pots and kettles. You object (in my view quite rightly) when someone assumes a material source for thought, or a material control mechanism for the brain, but I must repeat: “Anyone who states categorically that the mind (intellect, will etc.) is immaterial is offering subjective opinion as if it were fact.” -DAVID: It seems to me that I control my own brain with my brain. It responds to my habits and learning issues with the proper plasticity to mold itself to my wishes. It is a perfect seamless feedback system between immaterial and material. We just don't know how it all works, since we don't understand the source of consciousness. -What is the “you” that uses your brain to control your brain? Materialists will argue that the “you” IS the brain. But since we don't know the source of consciousness, nobody can tell us that “you” are wholly material or partly immaterial. It's not just a matter of knowing how it all works, but of knowing WHAT is at work: the brain, or an immaterial identity that controls the brain? -DAVID: A new study shows our brain is much more plastic than the chimp's: -http://phys.org/news/2015-11-nature-nurture-human-brains-evolved.html-The rest of the article contains numerous comparatives: “more plasticity, propensity to be modeled by the environment, than chimpanzee brains”; “the chimpanzee brain is more strongly controlled by genes than that of human brains”; “the human brain appears to be much more responsive to environmental influences”. This is degree and not kind, and the materialist would argue that this difference in degree has led to our ability to think in a greater (I have to use another comparative) variety of ways than the chimp. No-one will deny the vast difference in range and depth, but since you acknowledge that our fellow animals “obviously have a degree of immaterial thought”, even your dualistic approach points to greater degree rather than different kind.
 
Perhaps, after all this discussion, you could remind us just why “kind” rather than “degree” is so important to you.