A THEORY OF INTELLIGENCE Part Two (Identity)

by David Turell , Monday, April 30, 2018, 18:41 (2398 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: What do you mean by the brain will “produce thoughts” from the s/s/c? It does not produce them imperfectly. According to your version of dualism, the s/s/c produces them perfectly, and the brain expresses them imperfectly (confirmed in the second part of your sentence).

DAVID: Now I am picking apart your English. The point is a material brain is subject to the condition it is in at any given time, and can only produce a copy of the original thought that it is capable of producing. It is a two step process: creating of thought and then its expression. Garbling can occur in either stage or both.

dhw: Fine until the last sentence. Why is the s/s/c’s CREATION of the thought “garbled” if disease only garbles the brain’s EXPRESSION of the thought?

I stand by my last sentence. You want to keep separate the brain and the s/s/c. They are not. The s/s/c mechanism is inextricably bound in the brain and must use it during life. We do not know if the s/s/c can have proper initial thought if the brain cannot handle it *(step one of my sentence above). My dualism is not your dualism in any sense.

DAVID: And don't scurry back to materialism making thought! 'I' try to make thought with 'my' brain which may or may not do it properly. Ask any schizophrenic about the problem.

dhw: In dualism, the ‘I’ is the s/s/c that “makes” the thought. According to one of your beliefs, your brain does not “do” it properly or improperly; the brain expresses it properly or improperly. I have no idea what causes schizophrenia, but when you write “a sick brain will give rise to deranged thought”, you switch to your other belief and tell us explicitly that the brain causes the thoughts – not that the s/s/c causes them and the brain misinterprets them. That may well be so, but it is the exact opposite of the dualism you profess to believe in. This is not a matter of linguistic incompetence. It is symptomatic of the dichotomy in your thinking, which reflects the general dichotomy which you keep refusing to recognize and which I have tried to resolve on this thread.

Just because you cannot recognize my view of how tightly the s/s/c mechanism must rely on the brains expression mechanism we will remain apart. Schizophrenia is due to a sick brain and the patient has trouble expressing normal thought. When you hear a paranoid tell you he is being spied on though the light bulbs, you can see the consequence of the brain damage. His s/s/c is obviously confused because his brain is sick. That is in life. When his s/s/c goes to heaven my guess is that it may well think normally. No need for the brain there.