--- Carvalho <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Now, I respect your scientific perspective on this, > but your assertion that the philosophical concept of > self and consciousness is to be totally disregarded > is a bit premature. After all, we are now not talking > about an organised religion's view of the "soul". >
As I had suspected in my last post, the above statements and the rest of what she has written make it clear that Selma has totally misunderstood me. There is a serious logical fallacy in what she has written above. To point it out let me requote the paragraph of mine that she quoted in her post: "The point is that there are objective scientific facts that indicate that terms such as mind, soul, self, etc are most likely particular configurations of the electrical activity of the brain." Now from the above she makes the erroneous logical jump that I have asserted that "the philosophical concept of self and consciousness is to be totally disregarded". I have made no such assertion. There is no reason for me to make such an assertion. Instead, I have clearly stated, and subsequently explained, that the concept of self has now been defined in terms of brain activity. I have never stated that once concretely defined in this manner this concept has to be "totally disregarded". I have explained that from a philosophical point of view what has been rejected are classical monism and classical mind-body dualism. The philosophical concept of self as defined in terms of emergentist/property dualist philosophy, as modern brain science appears to be doing, will never be disregarded. Actually, modern brain sciences removes the fluff and haze from terms such as self, spiritual experiences, etc, and defines them more precisely and concretely. They are no longer abstract imaginative concepts. So poets, writers and religious folk whether organized or disorganized, will have nothing to fear. No words will ever be taken out of their mouths. I only hope that no more words are put in my mouth by Selma and others on this issue. Cheers, Santosh > Organised religion has been so easy to discredit, > especially post 9/11 having come in for so much > flak, > but we are now talking about centuries of > philosophers > and schools of latter-day writers, among which > include > such luminaries as Jung, M Scot Peck, Gibran and > Paulo > Coelho, who speak eloquently and passionately about > consciousness. Two from the standpoint of clinical > psychologists with years of experience in the human > Psyche and the other two from the standpoint of > poetic > writers and free thinkers. >
