Immunity: detecting dangerous bacteria (Introduction)

by dhw, Friday, November 24, 2017, 13:37 (2557 days ago) @ David Turell

Dhw: One moment you believe autonomous intelligence is impossible without a brain, and the next you tell us that autonomous intelligence does not depend on the brain. Look at two of your statements in the last couple of days:
“The new brain had an advanced ability for thought...” “The smaller brain does not have the ability to have the concept…” (which means only the larger brain has the ability to have the concept). And on this thread the only way an organism can be autonomously intelligent is for it to have a brain. All these statements mean that autonomous intelligence is not possible without a brain. But this apparently is your “shorthand” because “it is understood the brain is the instrument for the soul”. So it’s the soul that does the thinking, in which case autonomous intelligence (as confirmed by your belief in an afterlife) does NOT depend on the brain! You can’t have it both ways. If autonomous intelligence does NOT depend on the brain, you cannot then argue that only an organism with a brain can have autonomous intelligence!

DAVID: Autonomous intelligence results from having consciousness, for which the brain is a receiver. Consciousness is not created by the brain. It exists separate from it and when received is used by the brain (soul). We've been over all of this.

We have indeed, and you are still getting confused! Since when did you regard the brain as the soul? We have agreed time and again that if there is such a thing as the “soul”, that is what does the thinking and the brain provides information and then obeys the “soul’s” instructions. And so if consciousness (and hence autonomous intelligence) is not created by the brain – which is only a receiver – and according to you can survive the death of the brain, how can you claim that only an organism with a brain can have consciousness and autonomous intelligence? (NB as usual, I am not arguing for dualism against materialism. I am only challenging your reasoning. One day I will find time to develop my compromise between the two –isms!)

(The size of the brain is a different subject and is dealt with elsewhere.)