Neuroscientists appear to believe that our phenomenal experience is constructed by the brain.
If that's true, it means our phenomenal experience of the brain is also thus constructed.
To be more accurate, there's absolutely no reason to object to the possibility that the mind constructs all phenomenal experience, including of the brain.
It seems to me, when you talk about the distinction of mind and brain, it leads people to think quite dualistically, without realizing that every image they have of the brain is something that they themselves admit is a construction (whether of mind or brain)
I prefer to start all discussion of mind and brain noting that we are talking about phenomenal experience, not a neat dualism of "mind and brain."
I think that's consistent with all you write in your article, just a different starting point, and one that I think might make it easier for skeptics to be open to what you write.
Don, the problem is that starting with this approach would have no chance of going through a peer-review process in a journal that wants you to be as grounded as possible, that is, mainly neuroscientific (though, Frontiers allows for some philosophical musings.) But it was already hard enough to get it through in this version (did you read the history of it?), and it was better not to add other potentially controversial stuff. Then, true is that it could be a starting point, but it could be also a point of arrival.
I wonder. Ed Kelly has a marvelous and quite erudite series of comments on this very topic in Irreducible Mind (I know, that's not a good example, perhaps)
Yes, I read the history. It reminds me of the brief history of psi skepticism I've written up from time to time.
Why don't we hash this out in our Way Beyond Materialism? I have a long standing friendly disagreement with your approach in terms of complexity. Obviously, looking at the history you wrote and from countless conversations I've had, most scientists just haven't a clue about what's going on in their deeply confused minds.
Congrats, excelent article.
I have an extremely simple minded question.
Neuroscientists appear to believe that our phenomenal experience is constructed by the brain.
If that's true, it means our phenomenal experience of the brain is also thus constructed.
To be more accurate, there's absolutely no reason to object to the possibility that the mind constructs all phenomenal experience, including of the brain.
It seems to me, when you talk about the distinction of mind and brain, it leads people to think quite dualistically, without realizing that every image they have of the brain is something that they themselves admit is a construction (whether of mind or brain)
I prefer to start all discussion of mind and brain noting that we are talking about phenomenal experience, not a neat dualism of "mind and brain."
I think that's consistent with all you write in your article, just a different starting point, and one that I think might make it easier for skeptics to be open to what you write.
Don, the problem is that starting with this approach would have no chance of going through a peer-review process in a journal that wants you to be as grounded as possible, that is, mainly neuroscientific (though, Frontiers allows for some philosophical musings.) But it was already hard enough to get it through in this version (did you read the history of it?), and it was better not to add other potentially controversial stuff. Then, true is that it could be a starting point, but it could be also a point of arrival.
I wonder. Ed Kelly has a marvelous and quite erudite series of comments on this very topic in Irreducible Mind (I know, that's not a good example, perhaps)
Yes, I read the history. It reminds me of the brief history of psi skepticism I've written up from time to time.
Why don't we hash this out in our Way Beyond Materialism? I have a long standing friendly disagreement with your approach in terms of complexity. Obviously, looking at the history you wrote and from countless conversations I've had, most scientists just haven't a clue about what's going on in their deeply confused minds.
Join me there. I'll set up a starting point