Big brain evolution: changes in sapiens skull shape;addendum (Evolution)

by David Turell , Wednesday, February 21, 2018, 15:35 (2465 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: I think we can accept MRI studies establishing general areas of use and control not very precise meanings. I commented on this inexactitude many times . The amgdala does deal with emotional states and must have firm connections with the pre-frontal judgmental area for good emotional controls.. The psychological actions as stated are fairly straightforward. I don't trust clinical psychololgy studies. They often cannot be replicated, but I see this at a more controlled level.

dhw: Tony has hit the nail on the head. Unless you subscribe to a 100% mechanistic view, i.e. materialism, the meaning of the MRI studies is pure speculation, because in the context of dualism, the question is whether all this brain activity denotes that the brain creates the thoughts or responds to the thoughts. ... By siding with “current medical theory”, David, you are siding with materialism.

Balderdash. I've clearly presented in the past my thoughts about MRI studies, but they clearly show the regions where certain activities take place. It is general information not specific as to each thought. The s/s/c an only work to the point that brain development has reached from childhood to age 25 in the prefrontal area.

DAVID: And I continue to insist the s/s/c must be able to interface with fully developed functional areas of the brain to provide proper thought to the living individual.

dhw: What do you mean by “proper” thought? The living individual IS the self. Yes, the s/s/c must and does liaise with the functional area of the brain. According to you as a dualist, with your belief that not only does the s/s/c control the brain but it also survives the brain, it is the s/s/c that takes decisions (makes judgements) and not the brain.

All I was offering was the statement you give above: must liaise with a functional area.

dhw: Defence attorneys use “diminished responsibility” of one sort or another in vast numbers of cases involving all ages, and ultimately it all ties up with the materialist argument that we do not have free will. I remain neutral, but you don’t. You have always argued that the soul/self has free will. Meanwhile, you have not responded to the logical extension of your argument: according to you, no one under the age of 25 is capable of reaching a rational conclusion because their pre-frontal cortex is not fully developed. A mass murderer over 25 has made a proper adult judgement because his pre-frontal cortex is fully developed. Is that what you believe?

DAVID: Current medical theory. I accept it.

dhw: Goodbye to your dualism, goodbye to your free will, and three cheers for current medical theory.

If the prefrontal area is not complete, the s/s/c cannot make fully adult judgments, because it must liaise with a fully functioning prefrontal cortex to do that. This supports my theory that brain complexity comes before complex thought is developed.