--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "authfriend" <authfriend@...> wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "salyavin808" <fintlewoodlewix@> wrote: > <snip> > > The best (or at least most important to us) of these > > neurological misconceptions is the last in the list: The > > mind and the brain are the same thing described in > > different ways and they make us who we are. > > You genuinely aren't aware that this is *the* most > controversial proposition on this list of supposed > misconceptions? The writer--a neuropsychologist-- > is certainly aware of it. For him to proclaim that > "the mind and the brain are the same thing described > in different ways" as if it were established fact is > absurd (and possibly deliberately deceptive). He may > *wish* it were established fact because he believes > in it so strongly, but the relationship of mind to > brain is an extremely perplexing issue about which > there are many passionate opinions and nothing > remotely like a consensus, nor, as yet, any promising > approach to nailing down the truth.
I see you read the Grauniad comment section ;-) But if you or anyone else has any evidence that the brain and the mind aren't the same thing, the rest of the world would love to hear it as it contradicts everything we know! But not everything we believe, which is why I consider it the most important statement for US. The mind has a rubbish track record at working out where and what it is. Did you know the ancient Greeks thought the brain is there to cool blood down as it moves round the body? Marshy thinks it somehow creates (literally) the physical universe! That's the trouble with trusting experience in the absence of data. > > Trying to suggest one causes the other is like saying > > wetness causes water. > I doubt anyone has ever "tried to suggest" that the > mind causes the brain. To say the brain causes the > mind is more reasonable, like saying water causes > wetness, but his rejection of causation either way > amounts to a straw man given our lack of knowledge > about the nature of the brain-mind relationship. >
