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

by David Turell , Tuesday, November 17, 2015, 18:33 (3294 days ago) @ dhw


> dhw: 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?-I use my brain to know 'me'. The brain is a tool I can command. My concept of me is immaterial, as it involves my thinking about myself, using the brain as a tool. Granted we do not know how it works, but this view of how I know 'me' is very obvious. In the rest of my body I don't have that capability. My digestion proceeds without my intervention. I can speed up my heart by exercise, but that is a secondary type of intervention, not direct. The brain is directly responsive to me. As a kid when I learned to play the piano, areas of my brain grew. As I grew up my brain grew grey mater to help me.
> 
> dhw: Perhaps, after all this discussion, you could remind us just why “kind” rather than “degree” is so important to you.-Just following Adler's approach: Difference in Kind means we are specially created. His book explains all of this.