Re: dhw--Epistemological Framework (Humans)

by xeno6696 , Sonoran Desert, Tuesday, January 18, 2011, 00:35 (4867 days ago) @ Balance_Maintained

No, I am not trying to bring back dualism. I am merely pointing out that there is a electro-mechanical function happening in the brain, and something that is aware of this function as a outside observer. When I think of my brain, I am not thinking of ME, I am thinking of a component of ME.-Well, what you're describing now, and what you were describing before is a minor variation on textbook Descartes dualism. "I can doubt that I have a body (brain) but I can't doubt that I have a mind." THIS is the proper place for "I think therefore I am."-You're asserting that mind is a separate substance from the matter; you're making your brain the object and your mind the subject. Worded another way, you're asserting your mind is aware of the brain as something distinct from itself. But what is your evidence for this? (Not reasoning--evidence!)-From Wikipedia on Cartesian Dualism:-"The central claim of what is often called Cartesian dualism, in honour of Descartes, is that the immaterial mind and the material body, while being ontologically distinct substances, causally interact. This is an idea which continues to feature prominently in many non-European philosophies. Mental events cause physical events, and vice-versa. But this leads to a substantial problem for Cartesian dualism: How can an immaterial mind cause anything in a material body, and vice-versa? This has often been called the "problem of interactionism"."-This single problem by itself is also one of my frequent positions with David on his theological formulation. You can't claim that an immaterial agent can act within a material world without providing a cause. The next problem is defining what exactly is material and what is not; any such explanation requires being able to concretely define this boundary.

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\"Why is it, Master, that ascetics fight with ascetics?\"

\"It is, brahmin, because of attachment to views, adherence to views, fixation on views, addiction to views, obsession with views, holding firmly to views that ascetics fight with ascetics.\"