3 ms·
Define physical. (Hint: It is not as easy as you think.) Is a mathematical object physical? Is the truth of your statement "If minds are physical." physical?
by cscurmudgeon 13y ago
Define physical. (Hint: It is not as easy as you think.)
Is a mathematical object physical? Is the truth of your statement "If minds are physical." physical?
- scott_karana 13y ago> Is a mathematical object physical? Are you saying that aspects of our minds may be abstract, and not concrete? Obvious GP was referring to the existence or lackthereof of metaphysical 'souls' for example... (I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic or serious, and I apologize if I misunderstood either way.)
- md224 13y agoThat reminds me of my favorite challenge to Physicalism as an ontology: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hempel's_dilemma http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hempel's_dilemma
- jamesaguilar 13y agoI mean what I said. Is mind-ness completely encapsulated in physical properties like the locations of biological components and electrical states? Are all things we would recognize as minds composable from matter? My ability to formulate a definition has little to do with the answer to the question.
- PeterWhittaker 13y agoYes. Yes. (Answers to your two questions. Being 100% biological beings built according to strict mechanistic darwinian rules, our "minds" are purely physical constructs. Insert leap of logic from that to Turing Machines and, well, you get the idea. We will build a "mind" or two, it's only a matter of time.)
- cscurmudgeon 13y agoIs a mathematical object physical? Nope. Yet we need those to talk about "physical" things. I asked you to define physical. Not to state what you mean being a mind being physical. If you try a bit, you would find out that dualism, materialism are all equally idiotic or equally truthful.