...but philosophy is on my mind.
Surely, in a community such as this, we don't think that thought is a mere product of physical interaction, do we?
I am firmly in the camp wherein I consider mind/body dualism to be the order of the universe, with a possibility that there is a mind/body/spirit trialism ...threealism... trinitism ...multiplicity.
So, Mike, how do you explain how someone's personality can undergo a radical shift with brain damage?
I'm glad you asked, Mike. Think of it (or align your neurons in a particular manner) as an artist with an instrument. If I took my daughter's French horn and poked holes in it, bent the bell all out of shape, or replaced the mouthpiece with a reed, it would not sound like the same. Maybe I should have gone with a telescope... Okay, new analogy: think of our brain like the lens of a telescope... a refracting telescope, not a radio telescope, that wouldn't work... but an optical telescope where one lens gets a blemish... a crack, a bubble, a smudge, and that distorts any image that comes through it. And that distortion goes both ways: the person looking at something far away sees a distorted image, but light also goes back through the telescope, and the image of the person using the telescope (or maybe just his or her eye) is also distorted to the world-at-large.
Surely, in a community such as this, we don't think that thought is a mere product of physical interaction, do we?
I am firmly in the camp wherein I consider mind/body dualism to be the order of the universe, with a possibility that there is a mind/body/spirit trialism ...threealism... trinitism ...multiplicity.
So, Mike, how do you explain how someone's personality can undergo a radical shift with brain damage?
I'm glad you asked, Mike. Think of it (or align your neurons in a particular manner) as an artist with an instrument. If I took my daughter's French horn and poked holes in it, bent the bell all out of shape, or replaced the mouthpiece with a reed, it would not sound like the same. Maybe I should have gone with a telescope... Okay, new analogy: think of our brain like the lens of a telescope... a refracting telescope, not a radio telescope, that wouldn't work... but an optical telescope where one lens gets a blemish... a crack, a bubble, a smudge, and that distorts any image that comes through it. And that distortion goes both ways: the person looking at something far away sees a distorted image, but light also goes back through the telescope, and the image of the person using the telescope (or maybe just his or her eye) is also distorted to the world-at-large.