Belinda wrote: ↑Thu Mar 18, 2021 6:18 pm
Peter Holmes wrote: ↑Thu Mar 18, 2021 1:25 pm
Belinda wrote: ↑Thu Mar 18, 2021 12:09 pm
Do you agree to use the usual jargon of academic philosophy? If so, I may tell you 'physicalism' means exactly the same as 'materialism' in the jargon. The historical reason for there being the two words is the former is more favoured by American philosophers and the latter by the English.
Do you know what
substance monism means ?
If you would, please think of how a medic does some patient's diagnosis. Obviously the medic cannot feel what her patient feels; it would be a big help with diagnosis if this were possible. So the medic has to rely on visible, smellable, tangible, and audible
signs (i.e. evidences)of possible disease. The medic also ask her patient to describe
symptoms or say if various symptoms are present. N.B. any symptoms the patient mentions may delusional, illusional, or they may correlate with something tangible. In all three cases (delusional, illusional, physical correlate) the patient is undoubtedly reporting existential phenomena and is probably not telling lies. Therefore the patient's mind exists.
Yes, I know what substance monism is. And your description of what goes on between doctor and patient - what the patient talks about - is not evidence for the existence of anything non-physical. Of course we can say 'the patient's mind exists' - because that's how we've always talked about our experiences. But it was always really just a way of talking about brain activity - as is all 'mentalist' talk. Substance monism is the rational position - but substance dualism was never even at the races, so ... nothing to see here. Move on.
Mind is not physical by definition. Mental means not physical. Public evidence is not available for mind phenomena because mind phenomena are known from direct acquaintance only.
Mental phenomena correlate with physical (physiological) phenomena and so we presume brains and minds are aspects of the same. We can as observers look at a brain-mind(aspect 1) and we can as immediate experiences feel a brain-mind(aspect 2). I bet there is a procedure where a patient having an operation on her brain can look at a scan of her brain and report an immediate sensation that correlates with the probe activation of a bit of her anatomical brain. When I say "immediate" in this context I mean not mediated by any organs of special sense.
The aspect of mind is not the same as the aspect of brain because qualia are experienced immediately or not at all.
I believe there is a lot of semantic issues in the above.
1. PH insist on his definition of what is 'physical' which is something solid and or observable by the senses, i.e. empirical.
2. Thus what is non-physical and 'metaphysical' like ghosts, spirits, do not exist.
3. Then he claims ALL abstract nouns do not exist as real empirically.
I agree that 2 as non-physical do not exist as real empirically since they cannot be tracked to any physical grounding and referent.
But I insist whatever abstract noun that are reducible to empirical referents do exist as real empirically.
For example the 'mind' is an abstract noun is mental and 'non-physical' conventionally, but what is the 'mind' is reducible to its physical referent the brain and the body.
What is 'mind' in this case is not a free floating spirit like ghosts and other ethereal beings.
What is mind as a real thing is like what is
a specific symphony orchestra that produced a specific piece of music, e.g. Beethoven Symphony No.5.
What is critical here is the element of "wholeness" connected physically or mentally.
A 'loose' group of 50 individual musicians and a conductor is not a real orchestra as a real thing, it is only an orchestra as a real thing when all their minds are connected and operate in synchrony as a group which can only produce outputs specific to the group.
As such a bunch of neurons and chemicals by themselves is not a mind, but there is mind only when all the live neurons are working in synchrony in accordance as programmed via evolution. Such a real empirical mind is reducible to its physical referents, i.e. the neurons, the chemicals and the algorithms all working in synchrony.
PH is stupid [not sufficiently intelligent] to deny such an empirical mind as described above, exists as real because he is dogmatically clinging to some olden bastardized philosophies and semantics from the logical positivists [defunct] and classical analytic philosophy.