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

by David Turell , Saturday, March 17, 2018, 14:25 (2441 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: So long as you insist that the expansion of the brain had to PRECEDE new thoughts, you contradict your own dualistic belief that in life there is a thinking soul (software) and an implementing body (hardware).

DAVID: If you accept my theory about the s/s/c being slightly different in mechanism in life and death, there is no contradiction. You have refused to do that, for no good reason that I can see. The s/s/c may not have a monolithic unchanged design in the two realms.

dhw: What is this “slight” difference? The importance of NDEs in this context is only the evidence they provide for dualism – namely, that the s/s/c is the THINKING you. The question we are debating is whether the s/s/c is or is not responsible for thought and whether the brain changes in implementing the thought (= dualism), or the brain changes before the s/s/c is able to come up with its new thoughts (materialism). Your insistence that your God had to enlarge the pre-sapiens brain before it could come up with new concepts puts you on the side of the materialists. Your nebulous new idea that the s/s/c is the same but may be “slightly different” in death does not alter the THINKING role of the s/s/c in life.

For me dualism must be thought of in different ways in life and death. In life the s/s/c cannot think without using the brain. In death it can. A material brain is required.

DAVID: As far as complex thought is concerned, only more complex computer hardware can do more complex operations. In life the s/s/c MUST use the brain. I am my s/s/c in life but the connection must be through the brain.

dhw: Yes, only a more complex brain can do more complex operations, and in dualism the software (s/s/c) provides the concept, and the hardware (brain) implements the concept. No disagreement. In life, yes the s/s/c MUST use the brain in order to live in the material world: it provides the thoughts, and uses the brain to provide information and material implementation. No disagreement. And yes, you are your s/s/c, and your s/s/c connects with the material world through the brain. No disagreement. The s/s/c does the thinking, and the brain does the material implementing. The immaterial thought of the s/s/c precedes the material implementation by the brain. You can hardly disagree. So the only disagreement is your insistence that the s/s/c can't do any new THINKING until it has been given a bigger brain, i.e. that the level of thought depends on the size of the brain. And that is your disagreement with yourself, not with me, as you say you are a dualist (which means that the s/s/c and not the brain does the thinking), whereas I remain neutral in the battle between materialism and dualism.

I see no disagreement with myself. Only the substrate of a complex brain can allow complex thought. In life the s/s/c must depend upon the type of brain that is present. Back to IQ as an example.