Brain expansion (Evolution)

by David Turell , Saturday, June 27, 2020, 18:37 (1608 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: If the dualist’s soul does the thinking, you can certainly argue that it can only use the information given to it by the brain, which must also be complex enough to implement it. How on earth does that come to mean that once the brain has expanded, there should be no stasis and the soul should immediately come up with new ideas? There is no contradiction!

The full implication of your theory is that the old brain has a new idea but a newly enlarged brain must appear to implement it. Why a delay of stasis? I am not misquoting or misunderstanding. From Thursday :

dhw: "In my theory, the original thought appears in the old smaller brain using existing information, and implementation as defined above forces enlargement. The new artefact and the expanded brain naturally “appear” at the same time."

dhw: I have explained precisely HOW the soul uses the brain. The complexity of thought does not depend on existing brain capacity for THOUGHT. The dualist’s brain does not do the thinking! Stop muddying the waters!

DAVID: I'm not allowed to follow my theory, but only yours counts? The opposite of the bold is exactly my theory and you know it. The soul, in life, must use the existing complex brain neuronal networks to think. More advanced networks, more advanced thought allowed.

dhw: You are juggling with words again. Yes, the dualist’s soul uses the information provided by the existing brain in order to do its thinking. But the existing brain does not have a capacity FOR THOUGHT – its functions, as we have agreed over and over again, are to provide information and to implement (defined earlier) the soul’s thoughts.

Again totally twisting my thoughts. To repeat: in life the soul must use the brain's neuronal circuits to think and create original thought. Only in death can the soul do it separately.

dhw: Your addition to this implies that the brain thinks (the brain’s “capacity for complex thought and earlier "the thought quality of brain"). If you believe that the brain thinks, you are a materialist, and you may well be right. So tell us outright: do you believe the soul does the thinking? Or do you believe that the brain also thinks?

Why repeat distortions I have denied over and over? I am a dualist, not a materialist, and I do not accept your style of dualist theory. See above statement.