Geez, Russ, who would have thought you were such a handsome old dog.
Anyway, not sure how the Strawson thing is an antidote to “Thompsonism”. And which, Thompson, by the way. During the time we have been corresponding, you and I, I have gone from being a materialist monist a la E. B Holt (“all that exists consists of matter and its relations”) to being neutral monist at la CS Peirce (“all that exists is experience, and all distinctions we make – mind, matter, your mind, my mind, past, present, future – arise as patterns in experience.” ) There is not a lot of daylight between experience monism and any other kind, but the Peirce way feels just a tad more honest and radical in its monism. On that view, there is nothing outside of experience-- talk of “experience of X” is all nonsense, unless, of course, X is another experience – nor is there any place for experience to be, no brain, no mind, unless these manifest themselves as patterns in experience. Thus, our obligation as scientists is to describe the experiences that anchor our references tomind, and brain, and anything else that we might claim to be outside, or beyond, experience. So, how would one anchor in experience, such claims as “consciousness is nothing but brain activity”? Nick Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology Clark University <http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/> http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ From: Friam [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Russ Abbott Sent: Monday, May 16, 2016 11:48 AM To: FRIAM <[email protected]> Subject: [FRIAM] Strawson on consciousness. An antidote for Nick Thompsonism. I've summarized <https://plus.google.com/u/0/+RussAbbott1/posts/XfJg2mEmwcw> Galen Strawson's piece in the NYT on consciousness.
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