Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id UAA03386 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Sun, 28 Oct 2001 20:34:42 GMT Message-ID: <002301c15fef$5c33b6c0$1924f4d8@teddace> From: "Dace" <edace@earthlink.net> To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: Re: Memes in Brains Date: Sun, 28 Oct 2001 12:30:16 -0800 Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="----=_NextPart_000_0020_01C15FAC.4CB92420" X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4133.2400 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4133.2400 Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Posted this a week ago.
TD
> On Fri, Oct 19, 2001 at 12:21:17PM -0700, Dace wrote:
> > Hi Robin.
> >
> > > And mind, in
> > > particular, is a high-level phenomenon about which physicists can
never
> > > have anything useful to say, unless it concerns the limits of physics.
> >
> > Who says the mind is a phenomenon? If it were, then there's no reason
why
> > physics couldn't inform us of its properties. It's precisely the
self-existence of
> > mentality that puts it off limits to physics.
>
> You shouldn't take "phenomenon" to imply "objective".
I'm not so sure the mind is a subjective phenomenon. Is there such a thing
as a phenomenon that's not in some way tangible?
Unlike the brain, the mind involves subjectivity. But that doesn't mean the
mind *itself* is subjective. We have a faculty of imagination, and within
this faculty we produce images. Does this mean imagination is itself
imaginary? While the content of thought is subjective, thought does actually
occur.
If brains are phenomena, then minds are noumena. Brains exist in relation
to their parts and to other organs. A brain is composed of neurons, not
some esoteric substance called "brainness." The mind, on the other hand,
is a thing in itself. We tend to think of the "self" as an ingredient of
mentality, like cayenne pepper in chili sauce. In reality, the mind simply
exists in-and-of itself.
The important division isn't between objective and subjective but phenomenal
and intrinsic.
Ted
===============================================================
This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Oct 28 2001 - 20:40:11 GMT