Is the mechanistic explanation of persons reasonable?

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If it explains thought it is self-destructive… BTW Does your brain explain itself?!
I don’t understand this line of argument. Does your liver explain itself? Does the hair on your chinny chin chin explain itself?
What I’m asking is when I get in a plane and fall into a deep sleep, how does an immaterial mind stay with me, does it have GPS or something? How could this ghost in a machine make me move my muscles? How can it interact with flesh and bone is any way at all and yet never show up on any instruments? :confused:
tonyrey;8367775:
How does the **machine **
act non-mechanically?
As an exercise in communication, how about you first answering my questions before asking a question? 🙂
Then trudge home into your mechanistic dungeon in high dudgeon! The fact remains that technology won’t tell you anything about truth, goodness, freedom, justice or love… whether you like it or not.
Then, as you said, you should be more precise - you were talking about science, not technology.
In reality - unless you actually do so…
You said “It is certainly defeatist to assume persons are driven solely by physical causes and can be explained as biological machines operated by blind processes…”. But how can it possibly be defeatist when the only alternative assumption on the table seems to be that no explanation is possible outside of some immaterial thingamajig which is itself apparently inexplicable?
(b) Can you palpate your thoughts and decisions?
Can you touch the sky?
(c) It corresponds with our ability to comprehend abstract concepts and principles - which are beyond the scope of a lump of tissue in the skull.
I see. You can’t imagine how it could be so it can’t be.
 
For me the most important question is are the beliefs of people who claim a mechanistic explanation for man reasonable? And the answer to that is obviously not. If man is just a machine then there is no morality, justice, love, happiness or any of the other things most everyone believes in. Since mechanists will not fully embrace their own beliefs I consider the explanation completely unreasonable and so do the proponents if they were honest.
 
Never a good idea to post while cranky. Oh, hang on, that would mean you’d never get to make any posts. 😃

Discussing a scientific explanation of mind does seem to crankify several Catholics on CAF though, and one day one of them might say why.
Today is the day a certified crankifyable granny will say why --at least in regard to herself. 😃

Basically, a scientific explanation of the mind is limited to explaining the downright amazing functions of the material anatomy. In a sense, this follows Descartes thoughts about the body and soul as being somehow separate somethings. Historically, the religious dualism of matter and mind has been around since the third century in Persia. (Manichaeism) However, the concept of good and bad gods, another version of dualism, has existed a lot longer.

In contrast to dualism, Catholicism holds that the human person is one, single nature which, in itself, is an unique unification of rational/corporeal, i.e., soul and body. Our own nature unites both the material world and the spiritual world.

The difficulty is trying to discuss the functions of the soul with people who only accept the material nature of the human anatomy. One person is talking about the intellective and rational abilities of the spiritual soul created by God, while the other person is talking about the location of a material mind as an epiphenomenon in some part of the anatomy. It is no wonder that at least one or both parties get a bit cranky – kind of like two ships passing in the night.

The Catholic Church teaches that the unity of soul and body is so profound that it is because of its spiritual soul that the body made of matter becomes a living, human body. The spiritual and material principles are not two natures united, but rather their unique union forms a single nature.

The hylomorphism principle might be a way to understand human nature. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition, paragraph 365 begins with “The unity of soul and body is so profound that one has to consider the soul to be the “form” of the body:” footnote is Council of Vienne in 1312.

One thing to remember when reading Aristotle’s hylomorphism is that the Catholic Church did not accept his philosophy completely.
plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-psychology/#2

Science, by definition, can ignore the spiritual soul by replacing it with an mechanistic explanation umbrella. Scientists can clone a mechanistic explanation in a “machine”. Science can benefit humanity in many ways. But, true (insert trademark) human nature existed before modern science. The creativity of science is the result of human nature.

Blessings,
granny
The quest for truth is worthy of the adventures of the journey.
 
For me the most important question is are the beliefs of people who claim a mechanistic explanation for man reasonable? And the answer to that is obviously not. If man is just a machine then there is no morality, justice, love, happiness or any of the other things most everyone believes in. Since mechanists will not fully embrace their own beliefs I consider the explanation completely unreasonable and so do the proponents if they were honest.
I don’t understand. There obviously is morality, justice, love, etc. How, in any way shape or form, can an explanation stop them existing?

And who are you to call me dishonest? :mad:
 
Science, by definition, can ignore the spiritual soul by replacing it with an mechanistic explanation umbrella. Scientists can clone a mechanistic explanation in a “machine”.
I keep being told that something explained must somehow definitely be a machine, while something unexplained is somehow definitely not a machine. Neither follows. In particular, thinking obviously follows patterns, it isn’t a random process, it isn’t disordered. And since that’s the case, the mind must at some level follow rules, there must be an underlying logic, order isn’t possible otherwise. And that applies whether the mind is spirit or matter, in neither case can there be a get-out-of-jail-free escape clause.

And of course you can continue to believe in a soul given by God, how do explanations prevent that?
Science can benefit humanity in many ways. But, true (insert trademark) human nature existed before modern science. The creativity of science is the result of human nature.
That’s a curious argument, can’t it be said of any human endeavor? What, art has no meaning because human nature existed before art? Philosophy is false because human nature existed before philosophy? Why pick out science? :confused:
 
I don’t understand. There obviously is morality, justice, love, etc. How, in any way shape or form, can an explanation stop them existing?
I agree. There obviously are those things. If there is nothing metaphysical then these things do not exist. I guess you could say that metaphysical things do exist, but that man is not metaphysical. If so you’d have no way to know or believe such things exist since you have said man is not metaphysical. So either way denying the metaphysical nature of man you deny knoweldge or the ability to even know about such things.
And who are you to call me dishonest? :mad:
If you believe that man is just mechanistic then you’d be dishonest if you also believe in objective morality and the culpability of man for his actions. In a mechanistic world you’d have no grounds for saying someone who kills a person has ever committed a wrong action. If the world is merely physical than that person was just doing what the laws of nature compelled him to do. I’ve yet to encounter anyone who says they dont want to hold people responsible on moral grounds for their actions. So mechanistic arguments are dishonest.
 
As everyone else on the thread seems intent on reducing it to yet another interminable science vs whatever fight, I’m unsubscribing. If anyone wants me in an friendly and serious discussion of the OP then send me a PM and we’ll work something out.
 
From what you said in post #26, you reckon the considerable progress made by some of these old theorists was to decide that the mind is immaterial, and hence beyond explanation.
No. Emphasis on no. The mind does have an explanation, but it must be of the immaterial kind, on pain of contradiction.
They took on far more than they could chew, threw up their hands, and in effect said it’s all too much, we dunno, and went off to quaff a few beers. Have a look at post #11 on my definitions.
Who are the “they” that you are referring to? I think we could get beyond a lot of misunderstandings if you started dropping names. Basically, depending on who you are talking about, the ones who properly engage in philosophical inquiry into the nature of the mind have not tried to explain both the mind and the brain, but the mind only… they do not attempt to give any scientific explanation… but an explanation nonetheless.

Therefore, it is wrong to pit science vs. philosophy in these matters, as certain “old theorists” knew what they were doing and didn’t overstep their bounds.
If philosophers already had the answers then scientists wouldn’t get any budget, would they?
You are correct in saying that if philosophers had all the answers, then scientists would be superfluous. But the extreme opposite, that philosophers have none of the answers and that science can replace the kind of explanations given by philosophers is nonsensical. Both philosophers and scientists have their own playing field; this doesn’t mean they don’t treat of the same objects or that they can’t get into conflict with one another and overstep their bounds… it means that when done properly, science could not in principle provide any objection to the findings of some philosophy (true necessary conclusions from arguments).

The immateriality of the mind is one of those things with true necessary conclusions from arguments.

Don’t overstep the bounds of science. It is possible to accept all current neuro-science observations about the brain and still accept the immateriality of the mind. And if you try to equate the brain and the mind in any way, well… I can refer you to relevant literature.
 
I keep being told that something explained must somehow definitely be a machine, while something unexplained is somehow definitely not a machine. Neither follows.
I agree.
It does not follow because it is an either-or situation which is similar to a non sequitor. What I need to do is to rewrite what I think you are saying and then put it into the proper both-and reasoning which I am trying to get across.
In particular, thinking obviously follows patterns, it isn’t a random process, it isn’t disordered. And since that’s the case, the mind must at some level follow rules, there must be an underlying logic, order isn’t possible otherwise. And that applies whether the mind is spirit or matter, in neither case can there be a get-out-of-jail-free escape clause.
The experience of an underlying logic and of order is valid for a person regardless of her knowledge about either mind or anatomy. This is because one’s experience of the mind is not dependent of one’s belief in the spiritual.
And of course you can continue to believe in a soul given by God, how do explanations prevent that?
It is the assumptions connected to the explanation that can exclude the spiritual soul.
That’s a curious argument, can’t it be said of any human endeavor?
granny’s argument is that “true human nature existed before science. The creativity of science is the result of human nature.”

One can validly divide human endeavors into what may be called natural instincts; for example; the craving of nourishment and what may be called creativity or gourmet cooking or granny’s excuse for not cooking
I keep being told that something explained must somehow definitely be a machine, while something unexplained is somehow definitely not a machine. Neither follows.
I agree.
It does not follow because it is an either-or situation which is similar to a non sequitor. What I need to do is to rewrite what I think you are saying and then put it into the proper both-and reasoning which I am trying to get across.
In particular, thinking obviously follows patterns, it isn’t a random process, it isn’t disordered. And since that’s the case, the mind must at some level follow rules, there must be an underlying logic, order isn’t possible otherwise. And that applies whether the mind is spirit or matter, in neither case can there be a get-out-of-jail-free escape clause.
The experience of an underlying logic and of order is valid for a person regardless of her knowledge about either mind or anatomy. This is because one’s experience of the mind is not dependent of one’s belief in the spiritual.
And of course you can continue to believe in a soul given by God, how do explanations prevent that?
It is the assumptions connected to the explanation that can exclude the spiritual soul.
That’s a curious argument, can’t it be said of any human endeavor?
granny’s argument is that true human nature existed before science. The creativity of science is the result of human nature. One can validly divide human endeavors into what may be called natural instincts; for example; the craving of nourishment and what may be called creativity or gourmet cooking or granny’s excuse for not cooking spaghetti long enough. I told my hungry kids that this was a new brand and that firmness (actually hardness) is the way it should be cooked.
What, art has no meaning because human nature existed before art?
Our human nature is not only able to see beauty in the universe or in a feminine form, we can express it in many different ways including Impressionism (my favorite), metaphysical poetry (another favorite), music, dance, architecture, and so on.
Philosophy is false because human nature existed before philosophy? Why pick out science? :confused:
Human nature, has the ability to recognize something beyond the material/physical which bombard the senses. Philosophy developed because the human person had highly refined gifts of observation coupled with analytical skills.

I chose science because that is the domain of mechanistic explanations of anything in the universe.

.
 
I keep being told that something explained must somehow definitely be a machine, while something unexplained is somehow definitely not a machine. Neither follows.
I agree.
It does not follow because it is an either-or situation which is similar to a non sequitor. What I need to do is to rewrite what I think you are saying and then put it into the proper both-and reasoning which I am trying to get across.
In particular, thinking obviously follows patterns, it isn’t a random process, it isn’t disordered. And since that’s the case, the mind must at some level follow rules, there must be an underlying logic, order isn’t possible otherwise. And that applies whether the mind is spirit or matter, in neither case can there be a get-out-of-jail-free escape clause.
The experience of an underlying logic and of order in the mind is valid for a person regardless of her knowledge about either mind or anatomy. This is because one’s experience of the mind is not dependent of one’s belief in the spiritual.
And of course you can continue to believe in a soul given by God, how do explanations prevent that?
It is the assumptions connected to the explanation that can exclude the spiritual soul.
That’s a curious argument, can’t it be said of any human endeavor?
granny’s argument is that true human nature existed before science. The creativity of science is the result of human nature.

One can validly divide human endeavors into what may be called natural instincts and the gift of creativity. For example; the craving of nourishment is a natural instinct. The gift of creativity may be gourmet cooking or granny’s excuse for not cooking spaghetti long enough. I told my hungry kids that this was a new brand and that firmness (actually hardness) is the way it should be cooked.
What, art has no meaning because human nature existed before art?
Our human nature is not only able to see beauty in the universe or in a feminine form, we can express it in many different ways including Impressionism (my favorite), metaphysical poetry, music, dance, architecture, photos of outer space and so on.
Philosophy is false because human nature existed before philosophy? Why pick out science?
Human nature has the ability to recognize something beyond the material/physical which bombard the senses. Philosophy developed because the human person had highly refined gifts of observation coupled with analytical skills.

I chose science because that is the domain of mechanistic explanations.

.
 
If it explains thought it is self-destructive… BTW Does your brain explain itself?!
You imagine that only the brain explains how our thoughts work whereas presumably the liver and hair do not…
What I’m asking is when I get in a plane and fall into a deep sleep, how does an immaterial mind stay with me, does it have GPS or something? How could this ghost in a machine make me move my muscles? How can it interact with flesh and bone is any way at all and yet never show up on any instruments?
I don’t claim to be able to explain how the mind exists any more than how the Supreme Mind exists whereas you **imagine **you can - in terms of the brain - without being able to do so…
How does the machine act non-mechanically?
As an exercise in communication, how about you first answering my questions before asking a question?

I have done so whereas you have not…
Then trudge home into your mechanistic dungeon in high dudgeon! The fact remains that technology won’t tell you anything about truth, goodness, freedom, justice or love… whether you like it or not.
Then, as you said, you should be more precise - you were talking about science, not technology.

Technology happens to be based on science…
You said “It is certainly defeatist to assume persons are driven solely by physical causes and can be explained as biological machines operated by blind processes…”. But how can it possibly be defeatist when the only alternative assumption on the table seems to be that no explanation is possible outside of some immaterial thingamajig which is itself apparently inexplicable?
You’re not making any progress with your **imaginary **material thingamajig with its magical power of understanding itself - and the entire universe into the bargain!
quote Can you palpate your thoughts and decisions?
Can you touch the sky?

I can certainly think about the sky without having to use my fingers…🙂
quote It corresponds with our ability to comprehend abstract concepts and principles - which are beyond the scope of a lump of tissue in the skull.
I see. You can’t imagine how it could be so it can’t be.
[/quote]

Unlike materialists I don’t rely on what I imagine but on what I know from direct experience: my intangible power of reason and perceptions…
[/QUOTE]
 
What are the mechanisms - if any(!) - by which electrical impulses produce consciousness, thoughts, emotions and decisions?
Hate to break the news to you: you and I have no minds, there are no beliefs and there are no desires. It is all of folk psychology, you see. And if you believe there’s such thing as a “mind” you believe in ectoplasm, and that something like Casper the friendly ghost lives inside of you.

I’ll let our fellow “bright” Daniel Dennet explain: "Dualism (the view that minds are composed of some nonphysical and utterly mysterious stuff) . . . (it has)]been relegated to the trash heap of history, along with alchemy and astrology. Unless you are also prepared to declare that the world is flat and the sun is a fiery chariot pulled by winged horses — unless, in other words, your defiance of modern science is quite complete — you won’t find any place to stand and fight for these obsolete ideas. (Kinds of Mind, Basic Books, 1996, p. 24) "

So you see, we cannot find a mechanism or a scientific explanation for the mind. And since we know that scientism is true, must be true: the mind has to go. Otherwise that means you might believe in astrology and alchemy next.

Now, that is serious philosophy right there.😉
 
Hate to break the news to you, you and I have no minds, there are no beliefs and there are no desires. it is all of folk psychology, you see. And if you believe there’s such thing as mind you believe in ectoplasm, and something like Casper the friendly ghost lives inside of you.

I’ll let our fellow “bright” Daniel Dennet explain: "Dualism (the view that minds are composed of some nonphysical and utterly mysterious stuff) . . . (it has)]been relegated to the trash heap of history, along with alchemy and astrology. Unless you are also prepared to declare that the world is flat and the sun is a fiery chariot pulled by winged horses — unless, in other words, your defiance of modern science is quite complete — you won’t find any place to stand and fight for these obsolete ideas. (Kinds of Mind, Basic Books, 1996, p. 24) "

So you see, since we cannot find a mechanism or a scientific explanation for the mind, the mind has to go, otherwise that means you might believe in astrology and alchemy next.

Now, that is serious philosophy right there.😉
I already know that the world is flat. When I walk out the door to feed the winged horses, it feels flat under my feet. As for finding a mechanism, I can use one for my alchemy trials. One more thing. I like friendly Casper because he is willing to give me a ride in a fiery chariot. So you better mind your manners or you will be an obsolete idea. 😉
 
I already know that the world is flat. When I walk out the door to feed the winged horses, it feels flat under my feet. As for finding a mechanism, I can use one for my alchemy trials. One more thing. I like friendly Casper because he is willing to give me a ride in a fiery chariot. So you better mind your manners or you will be an obsolete idea. 😉
You’re pointing the wrong guy for lack of manners. Everything was quoted from Daniel Dennet down to the caricature ectoplasm and Casper the friendly the ghost.

Just in case you haven’t noticed, I was being sarcastic in the previous post. I do not believe anything Daniel Dennet says about the mind.👍
 
You’re pointing the wrong guy for lack of manners. Everything was quoted from Daniel Dennet down to the caricature ectoplasm and Casper the friendly the ghost.

Just in case you haven’t noticed, I was being sarcastic in the previous post. I do not believe anything Daniel Dennet says about the mind.👍
I did notice the 😉
and give you credit for presenting humor. Thank you. And replied in kind even using “mind” in another way.

On a serious note. Believe it or not, there have been some other posts which used the flat earth, etc. as a serious means of intimidation. The “Dennet piece” put together a bunch of other silliness similar to what I have seen in the past. And hopefully, my own sarcastic reply with the 😉 will point out the uselessness of “membership in the flat earth society” as an argument.

The mind/body situation is an important discussion which, unfortunately, can become heated. It becomes easy to use assumptions that the “other” person has no sensitivity, no morals, no real joy in life, no idea of honesty, etc. For me, personally, looking at life with a both-and attitude is better than the "either-or* mutually exclusive attitude.
 
So mechanistic arguments are dishonest.
Didn’t notice your second post yesterday, so just dropped back in to say congratulations, you’re only the second person ever to get yourself on my ignore list and you did it in the space of just two posts!

The first guy got himself suspended for calling other posters dishonest, but then he was given to being superficial and arrogant, you’ll know what I mean.
 
Unlike materialists I don’t rely on what I imagine but on what I know from direct experience: my intangible power of reason and perceptions…
I should add that persons precede particles in the order of ontological and epistemological priority. In simple English you and I and everyone else exist as rational beings made in the image of God whereas you stake everything on the irrational molecules which constitute the lump of tissue inside the skull…
 
Hate to break the news to you: you and I have no minds, there are no beliefs and there are no desires. It is all of folk psychology, you see. And if you believe there’s such thing as a “mind” you believe in ectoplasm, and that something like Casper the friendly ghost lives inside of you.

I’ll let our fellow “bright” Daniel Dennet explain: "Dualism (the view that minds are composed of some nonphysical and utterly mysterious stuff) . . . (it has)]been relegated to the trash heap of history, along with alchemy and astrology. Unless you are also prepared to declare that the world is flat and the sun is a fiery chariot pulled by winged horses — unless, in other words, your defiance of modern science is quite complete — you won’t find any place to stand and fight for these obsolete ideas. (Kinds of Mind, Basic Books, 1996, p. 24) "

So you see, we cannot find a mechanism or a scientific explanation for the mind. And since we know that scientism is true, must be true: the mind has to go. Otherwise that means you might believe in astrology and alchemy next.

Now, that is serious philosophy right there.😉
Eureka! Their hypothesis means that everything is irrational - including their hypothesis… :yukonjoe:
 
Eureka! Their hypothesis means that everything is irrational - including their hypothesis… :yukonjoe:
Yeah, eliminative materialism (that we’ve no minds) is incoherent. Sadly, a lot of people give it the time of the day since they do not want admit that there are things that are non-physical, that lack volume and extension. It opens the door a bit to the possibility to an immaterial mind like god to exist.

Rather than admitting that there are things science cannot and will not explain, they prefer to throw the mind overboard.
 
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