Well formulated Glen. The raw desire for a frozen blueberry Yogurt seems to
have little to do with the mind, and the abstract thought of a Calabi-Yau
manifold in 6 dimensions seems to have little to do with the body. An
example where we feel this perplexing sense would be a situation where body
and mind contradict each other: for instance my body may say I should eat a
frozen blueberry Yogurt now, but my mind says I should not because it
contains too much sugar. Or my body says I should have sex with that
beautiful woman, but my mind says I should not because I am married.
The desire to eat comes from my body, and I can feel it comes from the
inside (in the last instance it comes from the genes who have built a system
which craves for our building blocks sugar and fat). The rule to avoid too
much sugar is clearly learnt. I can feel it comes from the outside if I
recall the rule or listen to the "Super-ego". As you know, Freud called the
representation of the body which is responsible for the desire "id" ("das
Es"), the representation of culture and mind "Super-ego" ("das Über-Ich"),
and the mediator between both the ego ("das Ich"). Each of us has developed
a complex personality which determines how Id and Super-ego interact to form
the Ego. The sinner eats every Yogurt he can, the saint eats none at all and
gives them away to the poor. The Tiger Woods or Bill Clinton type eats every
Yogurt he can while pretending he has eaten only one.
Until we can explain this perplexing sense that there are parts of the body
that seem to have little or nothing to do with the mind (and vice versa) the
mind-body problem is not completely solved. It remains also unsolved as long
as we can not explain how the mind emerges from the body, i.e. from the
interactions of billions of knowledge molecules ("ideas") and Yogurt cells.
In the end, the interactions of course lead to a vast network of neurons
which incorporate all available knowledge and which are made from Yogurt
cells. The devil is in the details. I think the trick here is to consider
the body and the environment, i.e. the adaptive body embedded in a certain
environment. A human being is a complex object living in multiple worlds, it
is as a biological organism a certain instance of nature which meets a
certain instance of culture during development, and both instances come
together to form a unique connection between both worlds.
-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 2:35 AM
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Fwd: The Psychology Of Yogurt
Nicholas Thompson wrote circa 11-09-19 05:19 PM:
I realize that you didn't start this thread, so you may be as perplexed as
I
am, but, what exactly IS the mind-body problem?
As I understand it, it's the perplexing sense that there are parts
(extended to processes by me if not others) of the body that seem to
have little or nothing to do with the mind. And vice versa: there seem
to be thoughts that have little or nothing to do with the body.
--
glen e. p. ropella, 971-222-9095, http://tempusdictum.com
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