Your thoughts are the activity of your mind. It is your mind thinking. Your mind is changing from one potential state to another. It’s self-evident.
Again, don’t conflate the “mind” with the consciousness that underpins and sustains it. There are aspects of the mind…thoughts and experiences that could be different, that don’t exist in and of thenselves…they’re contingent, but consciousness itself isn’t.
You’re free to argue with what is self-evident if you wish, but a necessary existence does not have potential states and a necessary mind does not experience change.
God creates and sustains reality…reality changes…God doesn’t.
There is an absolute distinction between the natures that God creates and the reality that is God. That’s why it’s possible for created natures to change and not God because created natures are not God. They are not a changing part of God.
Yes, reality changes, I admit that. But what I’m arguing is that the consciousness that underpins that reality doesn’t change…ever. But you keep trying to equate the changes in reality to changes in consciousness itself, which is where we disagree.
You are not distinct from your consciousness. It self-evidently changes from one potential state to another. You experience change.
In a hierarchical series which one comes first? If one comes first then in some sense at least, they’re distinct, even if they constitute one thing. Consider the trinity for example.
You are identical to your consciousness.
But it’s consciousness that makes everything else possible. Therefore in a hierarchical series it’s consciousness that comes first. And if it comes first then it must be distinct from everything else, even if it’s inseparable from everything else.
Your consciousness changes from one potential state to another. Your consciousness is not distinct from what it’s doing like thinking.
Thoughts are the product of the mind, we may agree, correct? And we may have several distinct thoughts, yes? Now, if a given cause of an effect is constant in all qualities then there can only be two explanations for the difference in effect derived from such mind. Either the surrounding conditions changed or the the effects are random. If its the first, then we cannot be referring to a mind, for one, because a mind is said to have the power of agency over what occurs in the realm of mental phenomena, but if all thoughts are different because of surrounding conditions and not because of any difference in position by the mind then there cannot be any agency in said mind, which contradicts the idea of mind. Further, to say that the change in effect is due to a difference in surrounding conditions rather than the cause, the solipsist would be making an admittance to the idea of surrounding condition in their defense of the individuals mind being noncontingent, which would, of course, contradict their initial position. As such, this compromise cannot be made by the solopsist.
They are of course different.
No, this is necessarily not true because you can distinguish between the thought and the thinker. Further, we can and do identify the cause of a thought as different then the thought itself (my mind is not the thought “I like burgers” and neither is the thought “I like burgers” me, for that thought is a necessary statement of a subject, to whicha thought cannot be). Finally, a thought is fundamentally a form, but forms cannot change, only the thing holding form can change, therefore, to go from thought to thought requires a distinction between the thinker and thought.
So your thoughts and experiences and perception and sense of self are not part of you at all? But something else entirely?Wesrock:
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Ah, but within this constantly changing setting there’s one constant…me. The fact that those things are contingent doesn’t by default mean that I too am contingent.
They are very much a part of me. But I might argue that these things are a part of me in the same way that Jesus is a part of the Father.
I’ll ask you the same thing that I asked Wesrock, does the fact that Christ experienced change disprove the claim that He was God?
Yes, your thought is made by your mind therefore they are different. Your mind is a substance with ability to experience for example.
I would put it a bit differently.
Sounds very similar to what STT thinks if I’m not mistaken
. You should take a look at the thread Free agent is not contingent, we spar on this subject quite a bit.