Re: The Identity Theory of Mind

From: Paul Bramscher (brams006_nospam_at_tc.umn.edu)
Date: 09/24/04 

Date: Fri, 24 Sep 2004 10:11:38 -0500

One other thing that's been making me question dualism is Plato's and
Decartes' limited appreciation for the material. Dualism emerged well
before even a rudimentaty understanding of nerves, electricty, the
electromagnetic sprectum, and light. Decartes had "animal spirits" to
work with in describing how the brain makes limbs move. Most likely
he'd not have placed these in his dualistic realm of physical matter.

We, on the other hand, now understand the "physical" to include
matter-energy as one "thing", (at a quark's view, there is no
discernable difference), and matter itself to enjoy a certain temporal
and spatial fluidity, hollowness, and haziness. We know of particles
that whiz through miles of "solid" rock.

We undstand photons to be massless particles with wave-like properties.
  So our estimation of the physical include things that the age-old
dualist would never have included: matter-energy and waves.

So dualism isn't what it used to be. And, in fact, I'm willing to
dismiss it altogether at this point.

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