Category: Mind
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Sophistry in True Detective: On the Supposed Illusion of Having a Self
The other day I referred to the following bit of dialogue from the new HBO series, True Detective, as sophistry. Now I will explain why I think it to be such. Here is the part I want to focus on. The words are put in the mouth of the anti-natalist Rustin Cohle. I've ommitted the…
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Conscience, Brain, and Scientistic Pseudo-Understanding
One of the tasks of philosophy is to expose and debunk bad philosophy. And there is a lot of it out there, especially in the writings of journalists who report on scientific research. Scornful of philosophy, many of them peddle scientistic pseudo-understanding without realizing that what they sell is itself philosophy, very bad philosophy. A…
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On Seeing: Intentionality without Aspectuality?
Consider this argument: 1. Tom believes that the man at the podium is the Pope 2. The Pope is an Argentinian Therefore 3. Tom believes that the man at the podium is Argentinian. The argument is plainly invalid. For Tom may not believe that the Pope is an Argentinian. Now consider this argument: 4. Tom…
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Of Meaning and Meat
No matter how you squeeze and beat, you won't get meaning from a hunk of meat. ………………. Addendum (12/27). It occurred to me that the above aphorism can be read in two ways. I intend that it be read in the first way! Related articles Thinking Meat? Matter Thinks? Memory and the Operations of Reason
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Mind and Matter
Here are a couple of theses that are part of my credo, though I do not merely believe them, but think I have good reasons for believing them: Thesis 1: One cannot get mind from matter no matter how the matter is arranged or how complexly arranged. That mind should arise from matter is unintelligible.…
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Ted Honderich is One Quirky Writer
I am reading Ted Honderich, On Consciousness (Edinburgh UP, 2004) and trying to get a handle on just what his theory of consciousness as existence amounts to. An awkward and quirky writer, he doesn't make things easy on the reader, and doesn't seem to realize that in this very fast brave new world of ours…
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On Multiplying Modes of Existence
Am I committed to an uneconomical multiplication of modes of existence? I said that the following set of propositions is logically consistent: a. Tom is thinking of a unicorn b. Unicorns do not exist in reality c. Tom's mental state is object-directed; it is an intentional state. d. The object of Tom's mental state does…
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Sexuality and Sex Organs
Can one learn all about human sexuality by studying the human organs of generation? The very notion is risible. Can one learn all about human affectivity by studying that most reliable and indefatigable of pumps, the human heart? Risible again. It is similarly risible to think that one can learn all about the mind by…
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Merely Intentional Objects and the ‘Existential Fallacy’
London Ed wants to pin the 'existential fallacy' on me. He writes and I respond in blue:
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Paul Churchland on Eliminative Materialism
Via Ed Feser, I see that that Paul Churchland's Matter and Consciousness has appeared in a third edition. Just what the world needs. I concur with Ed's judgment: The only thing more outrageous than Churchland’s persistence in superficiality and caricature would be the continued widespread use of his book as a main text for introductory courses…
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Pascal on Materialism
"Atheists should say things that are perfectly clear. Now it is not perfectly clear that the soul is material." (Krailsheimer, #161, p. 82) An atheist needn't be a mortalist, and a mortalist needn't be an atheist. But let that pass. Although the one does not logically require the other, or the other the one, atheism…
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Made for Thinking
Blaise Pascal, Pensées, Krailsheimer #620: Man is obviously made for thinking. Therein lies all his dignity and his merit; and his whole duty is to think as he ought. Now the order of thought is to begin with ourselves, and with our author, and our end. Now what does the world think about? Never about…
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The Relevance of Conscious Robots for the Philosophy of Mind
Do you understand lasagne? Of course you do. But I understand it better because I know how to make it from ingredients none of which is lasagne. (If I were to 'make' lasagne by fusing eight squares of lasagne, and you were a philosopher, you would protest that I hadn't made lasagne but had 'presupposed' it. …
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Thomas Nagel on the Central Argument of His Mind and Cosmos
Here. Excerpt: This means that the scientific outlook, if it aspires to a more complete understanding of nature, must expand to include theories capable of explaining the appearance in the universe of mental phenomena and the subjective points of view in which they occur – theories of a different type from any we have seen…
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Is Philosophy of Mind Relevant to the Practice of Neuroscience?
This from a reader: There’s a youngster here considering going to college to study neuroscience, and I’m doing my best to inoculate him against scientism while offering a case for dualism. I’ve offered broad worldview reasons why that would matter, but I’m not sure off the top of my head what I would say if…