Big brain evolution: brain size and intelligence (Evolution)

by dhw, Thursday, March 29, 2018, 09:33 (2430 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: You refuse to accept a different concept about the brain s/s/c interface. My point is the s/s/c in life cannot develop new concepts independent of the neural mechanisms in the brain. It is still the idea presented by our computers that complex hardware allows for more complex software development of concepts. To restate your comment, 'the brain is the source of living thought'.

dhw: You could scarcely find a statement more supportive of materialism. Once more: dualism is the theory that in living beings the mind/soul and the body are separate entities that work together. That is the meaning of “dual” – two, not one. The mind/soul as the source of thought encompasses all the immaterial elements of our personality – that part of us which some people believe survives the death of the body. And so if the brain is the source of thought in living beings, there can be no such thing as a separate mind/soul, because without the source of thought, there can be no thought.

DAVID: The brain is not the lone source of thought in life. I've been very clear. The s/s/c must use the brain to produce thought in life. If the s/s/c has a thought it must produce it through the brain which then becomes the direct source as it implements living thought, which I distinguish from thought after death.
And later:
I am not contradicting myself. As a receiver the brain is a broadcaster (implementer) of the s/s/c thoughts. Does that help you understand my point of view? Of course the brain is material, but entirely necessary in the process.

At last a glimmer of light. You have now repeated precisely the point that I keep making to you. In dualism the s/s/c provides the thought and the brain IMPLEMENTS it. Of course the two are entirely necessary in life, but the brain is not the SOURCE of living thought. The s/s/c is the SOURCE, and the brain is the receiver that IMPLEMENTS the thought. Consequently it is a contradiction for a dualist to claim that the s/s/c cannot THINK without the brain. Its thoughts cannot be IMPLEMENTED without the brain. And therefore it is a contradiction for a dualist to claim that pre-sapiens’ s/s/c could not have THOUGHT of new concepts if his brain had not already expanded. He could not have IMPLEMENTED his new thoughts until his brain had expanded.