Evolution and humans: big brain size or use (Evolution)

by dhw, Sunday, May 21, 2017, 15:24 (2741 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: Where is it mentioned that each hominin brain vault size doesn't show significant enlargement in each stage?
dhw: When it says that the history shows “a gradually bigger brain…during the evolutionary path from early primates to hominids and finally to Homo sapiens”, I presume it means an enlargement at each stage.
DAVID: Each change in brain size is 200cc or more. The word gradual to me refers to the time of evolution over 2+ billion years from Lucy onward.

Yes, “gradual” involves changes that cover a long period of time. Shall we get on with the main issue of your materialistic interpretation of dualism?

DAVID: My concept of me=self comes from consciousness, which I view as a dualist as a separate mechanism from my meaty wet brain. I form ME as my brain uses my consciousness. That Me=consciousness separates during NDE's intact and returns when the brain can receive it again. It is probably a quantum construct as shown by late choice experimentation in which consciousness dictates the results of the test.

You keep harping on about the return. Do you or do you not believe that after your actual physical death, you/your consciousness will survive with identity intact as David Turell? See below for the implications of your reply.

DAVID: I view consciousness as an instrument the brain plays. I am discussing areas of thought in this approach. No advanced math 200,000 years ago. As humans generally advanced, language appeared and advanced thought appeared. The boundaries of our inner self enlarged with time. That is my concept of 'functions allowed'. The hunter-gatherer did only that.

There is no disagreement over the advancement of thought. But if you believe that consciousness survives the death of the brain, and you do not believe that the brain is the source of thought (= materialism), then it can only be that consciousness uses the brain to acquire information and to translate thought into action.

DAVID: Your discussion is entirely backward from my concept. Size first then the ability to conceptualize. Consciousness only delivers the ability to develop concepts through thought. Consciousness has no concepts of its own, I do.

According to your dualism and what I presume is your belief in an afterlife, “you” ARE your consciousness, as you acknowledge in a moment. Thought is the product of your consciousness, not of your brain. If brainless consciousness cannot think, then you will have to abandon your belief in an afterlife as yourself.

DAVID: There are two sides: consciousness as a mechanism and consciousness=my self image which I develop from childhood.

Precisely. According to you (I remain neutral), consciousness is both the (immaterial) mechanism that generates thought (including concepts) and the “self” (containing all the thoughts and concepts it has generated) which develops and ultimately survives. It is consciousness as mechanism and self that uses the brain, which RECEIVES concepts and instructions. According to you, then, does the receiver brain say to you/consciousness, “Here are the tools, so now talk a new language”, or do you/your consciousness say to the receiver brain, “I want to talk a new language, so give me the tools”? In other words, which comes first – the tools or the concept?