Identity (Identity)

by George Jelliss , Crewe, Monday, August 31, 2009, 19:42 (5562 days ago) @ dhw

dhw wrote: "I agree with you that there is no evidence for "universal intelligence"."-A surprising admission!-dhw wrote: "If I decide to do a crossword puzzle, are my brain cells telling me what to do," No. "or am I telling my brain cells what to do," No. "and if my mind is made only of brain cells," No. "what constitutes "I/me"?" See my earlier post where I indicated that we are our past history. You seem to agree with this when you say: "Furthermore, if my identity is fashioned by heredity, environment, chance and experience, ..."-but then you go on: "... but my mind (which encompasses my identity) consists only of brain cells," but I've specifically stated that the mind is the activity of the brain, not the brain cells themselves.-dhw: "how are the brain cells changed by environment, chance and experience?" -It is the connections between them that are changed, and what they are taken to signify. 
 
dhw: "My mind does not SEEM to me to consist solely of brain cells" -I never said it did consist of brain cells.-dhw: "But we do not "actually know" anything about how all the above mental processes work." -We do know a great deal. What do you thnk all those neuroscientists and psychologists are doing with their time?-dhw: "I simply cannot say that the mind is nothing but atoms." -Same old straw man again!

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GPJ