>It's in opposition to reality. Not a reality "shared by many cultures," but
>_the_ reality -- a reality created by the biology of the human body: People
>must eat. Period.
Alright, alright, now I've can't resist joining in. :) You make one
very big assumption here and you probably don't realise it. That is, do
people have to eat, or do we just think we have to eat. Does everything
we see and touch really exist or are we just imagining it? Mind or
matter? Is it that we are made up of millions of atoms working together
to make us function and think, or are we just an intangible thing which
imagines all the tangible (and other intangible) objects around us. Do
you exist, or am I imagining you? Are you imagining me? If matter
doesn't exist, then just imagine humans don't need to eat and they won't.
Note, don't imagine you're imagining we don't need to eat, that won't
work.
And that assumption is central to your entire argument and I don't see
anyway anyone can ever prove if things really exist or not, so your
argument stands on very shakey ground. The problem is, the same thing
applies to the other side of the argument as well, so I declare both
sides the looser! :)
BTW, the mind or matter debate is being researched quite extensively by
artificial intelligence experts, as it is central to their work. If the
brain is a collection of atoms working together, we can create electronic
atoms and therefore make computers intelligent, otherwise we can't. SEE
2001 A Space Oddessey.
Paul Sutton Phone
3 Bream Street home phone +61 7 4777 8517
TAYLORS BEACH 4850 home computer fax +61 7 4477 9734
Queensland Australia (phone home # first to enable fax)
Head of Mathematics Department work phone +61 7 4776 2433
Ingham State High School work fax +61 7 4776 1182
PO Box 869
INGHAM Q 4850
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
