2006-09-23 20:02:05 · 13 answers · asked by Alexci 1 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
They are real.
Your very question states so. Aren't chemical reactions real? If you believe there is such a thing as chemical reactions, you must say yes.
Therefore, your question is are thought real (but different from chemical reactions) or chemical reactions (which are real?).
In any case, you know thought exists. And your knowledge of them is a thought, which also exists.
2006-09-23 20:09:50 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well, of course, your two options are not mutually exclusive. Thoughts are of course real in some sense, and they are, in part, chemical reactions.
Thoughts, such as the thought represented by the sentence "I think the Detroit Lions suck" are, to put it simply but not inaccurately, configurations of our brains. They are certainly real. Are they real in exactly the same way that a brick is real? Certainly, and yet not really. A stop sign is a piece of metal. It is also a red and white piece of metal - but it does not appear to be so to a colorblind person. It is also a token idea to someone who can read. The stop sign really is a stop sign, and it really is a piece of metal.
A thought really is a certain electo-chemical neural pattern in your head - and it really is something that often can be represented by language - like "I think this answer is kind of long".
Anyway, I could - and in papers have - gone on for a long time. If you really are interested in this sort of stuff then examine your premises. If thoughts are just chemical electrical interactions of gray matter - do they seem somehow less real to you then if they were made of more exotic and supernatural stuff?
2006-09-24 03:14:58 · answer #2 · answered by a h 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Chemical reactions are part of the physiological brain processes that accompany thought. Calling thoughts "chemical reactions" is like calling a family vacation in a car "internal combustion".
In it's fear of being subjective, science has excluded sentience as a subject for examination. Only the physical processes are described, as though that were consciousness. This is one of my pet peeves. Oh, well. No room here to get into a discussion about the nature of thought.
2006-09-24 03:27:49 · answer #3 · answered by beast 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
they are real and they are chemical reactions - they are not 'just' chemical reactions
chemical reactions are made of atoms - everything is atoms - it is therefore atoms that are running your body and mind, organising millions of jobs to keep your body functional - it is atoms that are making grass blades, mites, and zebras - everything is atoms
we think that atoms are 'just' something - little steel balls or something - but when you think about it - how can complexity come from simplicity? - it cant - so atoms are as complex as anything else
eg, the hydrogen atoms on a water molecule are not 180 degrees apart, they are nearly 120 degrees apart - now why? - it has to be some complexity causing that - it is because they are 120 degrees apart that they make snowflakes, and it is because they are not exactly 120 degrees apart that every snowflake is different - complexity
it had to be implicit in or built-in to atoms to make forms, and to make infinitely complex systems like living bodies - how do atoms know how to do all the millions of jobs in the body? - i dont know how to do it - therefore atoms must be much smarter than me - smarter than me than i can even begin to imagine, to do all those things - what motivates them to be so industrious and energetic and servicable?
it's a weird and megamarvellous world
2006-09-25 02:21:11 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I believe there is more to consciousness to chemical reactions. If it were only chemical reactions, then I would be a mindless automaton unable to experience inner feelings. However, since I am able to experience such feelings, I do not think that there is a purely mechanical explanation.
2006-09-24 03:05:47 · answer #5 · answered by Stanley K 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
why do you oppose reality with chemical reactions? even if all of our thoughts can be traced to physical/chemical reactions, our thoughts are still real. we still have them, and they still have meaning to us. People all the time say "love isn't real, its only chemicals." but love is still real. its still experienced.
i think that when people say things like this they are confusing reality on one level with reality on another. the physical reality of thought may "only" be neurons firing. i lean toward a naturalistic view like this, but i don't see how this cheapens or degrades thoughts. the other side of reality is the mental aspect. the mental reality of thought is the experience of the thought itself. and this experience gives value and meaning. the mental reality is your experience. so, for example, when you're in love, the experiences that make up that overall experience of love have value. they give you pleasure, they give you happiness, they give meaning to your life.
the main idea is that the value you get from things is in your experience of the things, not in their physical reality. does love have meaning it creates pleasurable experiences, or does love have meaning because of some hidden reality that you do not experience? i think all meaning comes from experience. how could something give meaning to us if we do not experience it?so our thoughts are "real" in the sense that we do experience them, and they are also "real" in that they have meaning (even if they are "only" neurons firing.)
2006-09-24 17:46:23 · answer #6 · answered by student_of_life 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Thoughts are real and are due to our rationality. To think of them as something biological is to dismiss the fact that humans have a higher faculty of reason than animals.
2006-09-24 03:27:01 · answer #7 · answered by WWMD 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Thoughts are composed of pure energy.They are just as real as things composed of solid matter.The whole body is alive with energies that are demonstrable and can be measured with various scientific equipment.Human beings generate their own personal field of energies.This includes radiating heat energies.
2006-09-24 03:44:35 · answer #8 · answered by mystic_master3 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Thoughts originate in the most subtle primordial creation called "chitta" . it cannot be defined. There is no equivalent word for this Sanskrit word in any other language. When this chitta becomes pure by yoga no thoughts arise in it.
2006-09-24 05:27:45 · answer #9 · answered by Brahmanda 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Thoughts are real. We just do not have any scientific way of proving them. We don't know everything yet.
2006-09-24 03:09:31 · answer #10 · answered by Artsy Lady 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋