A THEORY OF INTELLIGENCE Part Two; addendum (Identity)

by dhw, Thursday, August 02, 2018, 09:54 (2304 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: Haven't you noticed I've changed my approach to the problem?

dhw: I’ve noticed that you change your approach every time I challenge your theory of the moment.

DAVID: Under your questions I keep reexploring my thoughts about this subject. Wouldn't you want me to keep working on it? I'm n ot satisfied with myself.

Thank you. I’m relieved to hear that my questions are proving constructive rather than frustrating. None of us can be satisfied with ourselves, because none of us know the answers. That is why I started this website!

DAVID: I am a combination of my immaterial mind, my immaterial soul, and my material me. In life as a material me I am in charge with free will. My soul is me but it is also my immaterial essence, so is me but at the same time a copy of me that can passes into the afterlife.

(1) I don’t know why you are separating your mind from your soul. (2) You have not made it clear which of your now three parts (trialism?) is in charge: your mind, your soul, or your material brain/body. (See also my final comment concerning the confusing separation of “I” from its component parts.) (3) Why must your immaterial essence be a copy? If your soul is you – containing the immaterial essence of you – why can’t it survive as itself rather than being a copy? In the past you have said it is a piece of your God’s consciousness that returns to God after death. No “copy”. Or is this one of the theories you have now abandoned?

DAVID: Thus as I think using the brain networks the soul is doing the same.

We have dealt with “using the brain” a hundred times. What does it use the brain for, apart from information and material expression? Now we have the “I” using the brain (you’ve forgotten about the mind) and the soul “I” also using the brain. If the "I" = soul and brain, that means the soul and the brain are using the brain. Again, see my final comment on the confusion.

DAVID: The electricity in the brain is the living material mechanism for thought formation. I am material and I produce thought in the brain . My proposal remains my immaterial soul has a way of creating consciousness out of electricity.

dhw: So the material “you” produces electricity which produces thought, although your soul – which a moment ago was merely a recording device – now creates consciousness, although in the previous sentence it was the material "you" that produced thought (which I would regard as inseparable from consciousness). This theory is as confusing as all the others. How about this for dualism: the immaterial soul produces thought, using the brain to provide information and to give its thought material expression? Too clear for you?

DAVID: To simplistic and incomplete for me. Electric impulses becoming immaterial thought need explanation. I still propose the soul part of me creates the consciousness needed.

Electric impulses are issued by the brain. If they become thought, it is the brain that is generating thought (materialism). If the soul creates thought, the electrical impulses are the RESULT of thought, not the generating cause.

dhw: […] if the soul is just a reflection and recording of the living you, it plays no role in the formation of you, let alone in the production of thought. And that, surprise, surprise, is fine with me. It is what I have proposed in my “theory of intelligence. […] At the current rate of your theorizing, we should have a deal in about a week’s time.

DAVID: This comment was written by you before I inserted the thoughts above. Do you want to revise your thoughts of my current theory in which I am still approaching me/soul as a dualist combo, in my own special way. I know I think with my brain networks and since I am my soul also, my soul and I think with my brain networks. My soul is never separate from me, but differs from material me since it goes to the afterlife.

I’m sorry but I find your new theory as confusing as all the old ones, largely because you have reverted to separating your “I” from its dualistic components of soul and brain/body. (Shall we agree to combine soul and mind, since you have already forgotten “mind”?) If we remove this confusing distinction, we are left with the following: Your soul thinks – not your soul and you – and it uses your brain in life for information and material expression, and it is the immaterial essence of you that goes into the afterlife. Classic dualism. If this is your current theory, you have done away with all the elements of your previous theories that supported my own, and so of course I will revise my thoughts about your current theory! Hasta mañana…