Chasing Mind
What are some of the BIG questions that might surface while pondering the nature of our mind?
What is the mind?
Science fiction has a long history in tackling the question: what is the mind? The Matrix series, Robocop, and more recently Rick & Morty (and so many more) have all offered multiple answers to this vexing question.The sheer variety of responses is very interesting. Perhaps of equal note is that many of the responses have rejected the "go-to" position that many of you hold intuitively, i.e. the mind is the brain...
What Mary Knows
Dualism
MEMES: Identity
"We can't define consciousness because consciousness does not exist. Humans fancy that there's something special about the way we perceive the world, and yet we live in loops as tight and as closed as the hosts do, seldom questioning our choices, content, for the most part, to be told what to do next." SOURCE: Screenrant
NTP: Mind
Why Do We Stay the Same Person Over Time? Why not Split Up?Self-knowledge is a super power – if it’s not an illusion
How Various Thinkers Tried To Solve the Mind-Body Problem
How a Materialist Philosopher Argued His Way to Panpsychism
Reductionism vs. emergence: Are you “nothing but” your atoms?
Is human consciousness creating reality?
Why can’t the world’s greatest minds solve the mystery of consciousness?
William James, where all consciousness is motor
Self-awareness is what makes us human The Extended Mind
The Knowledge Argument Against Physicalism
VIDS: Mind
Locke on Personal Identity Part 1Descartes’ Cogito Argument
Know Thyself
"Where does mind reside?" from the Crash Course in Philosophy series
"Daniel Dennett - What is the Mind-Body Problem?" from the Closer to the Truth series
"John Searle - Solutions to the Mind-Body Problem?" from the Closer to the Truth series
PODS: Mind
"Ted Honderich on What it is to be Conscious," in the series Philosophy Bites"Keith Frankish on the Hard Problem and the Illusion of Qualia," in the series Philosophy Bites
"David Papineau on Physicalism," in the series Philosophy Bites
"Pat Churchland on Eliminative Materialism," in the series Philosophy Bites
"Hedda Hassel Mørch on epiphenomenalism" from the Friction YouTube Channel
"Hedda Hassel Mørch on dual aspect monism" from the Friction YouTube Channel
IEP: Mind
Self-ConsciousnessSEP: Mind
The Mind/Brain Identity TheoryDualism
Physicalism
Naturalism
Qualia: The Knowledge Argument
Panpsychism
Zombies
Knowledge Check
Lit: Mind
Nathaniel Hawthorne
"The Haunted Mind"
Some potential questions from the first sally that are related to consciousness are:
- Is introspection a tool with limits regarding the mind and consciousness? What do you make of Hawthorne's "wide awake in the realm of illusions?" Which realm is illusory?
- What do you think Hawthorne meant by his "bare idea of a polar atmosphere?"
- Perhaps the most often cited lines from this short story are: "In the depths of every heart there is a tomb and a dungeon, though the lights, the music, and revelry above may cause us to forget their existence, and the buried ones, or prisoners whom they hide. But sometimes, and oftenest at midnight, these dark receptacles are flung wide open. In an hour like this, when the mind has a passive sensibility, but no active strength; when the imagination is a mirror, imparting vividness to all ideas, without the power of selecting or controlling them; then pray that your griefs may slumber, and the brotherhood of remorse not break their chain." How might the physicalist and dualistic renderings of the lines differ? Is remorse real?