I think the emergence of the mind - including the emergence of consciousness
and self-awareness - is the most complex and most interesting form of
emergence, and until we can explain it, we can hardly claim that the
mind-body problem is solved. Likewise the biologists can not claim they have
understood the genes until they can say how the body emerges from the
instructions of the genes (how genes like the hox genes build the body,
consecutively, in every detail).
The Chinese know that the mind is made of many "knowledge molecules". I have
read recently in a book that the Chinese word for intellectual is zhi shi
fen zi (知识分子 or 知識分子). zhi shi (知识) means knowledge, and fen zi (分子) means
molecule. Thus intellectuals are people with many knowledge molecules.
For me, one of the big questions in Philosophy and Psychology seems to be
how the mind emerges from the collision of "knowledge molecules" and
"biochemical molecules" (aka Yoghurt), from the continuous interplay of
memes and genes or nature and nurture.
-J.
----- Original Message -----
From: "glen e. p. ropella" <[email protected]>
To: "The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group" <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, September 20, 2011 7:32 PM
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Mind-Body (was: The Psychology Of Yogurt)
[...]
Medically, this Big Question flows down into questions like:
1) Does a person's identity change after a stroke? Or the onset of
Alzheimer's? Parkinson's? Cancer? A bunion?
2) How is a schizophrenic person different from a "healthy" person and
what changes can/should we make to "heal" such a person?
3) What is the personhood status of a fetus? A comatose patient? A
brain-dead patient?
These aren't just "little mysteries", as you so belittle them. They are
instances of the mind-body problem with very practical and often
heartbreaking contexts.
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