2007-09-21 13:52:45 · 7 answers · asked by Sowcratees 6 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
Good answers. I think this type of question can help philosophy get started.
My definition of soul or mind is purposely without religious content. What ever a thought is, I find it difficult to allow that it is reducible to electrical pulses in a meat computer. Any theory that says that thought is a by-product of matter results in the naturalist paradox. It would seem that the scientist could explain every thought except the one that explained all the rest. I find it endless interesting. Another way of saying this is that if all systems of thought are illusions, we should never have discovered the fact!
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2007-09-21 14:35:42 · update #1
Neurological science is progressing to the point where we may soon have a more precise understanding of the functioning of the human brain, but we already know that without a brain (which is made entirely of matter, including electrical currents which are strings of electrons), we can't process our experiences of the world (matter in motion), so we would never develop our distinct personalities.
Our soul? The values that make us human are also learned and developed depending on the influences we encounter and our own responses to them.
So I think everything is matter in motion or ultimately a dependent reflection of it. And that understanding does not make me think any less of the enormous capacities for courage, generosity and self-sacrifice I see demonstrated by the human species.
2007-09-21 14:07:17 · answer #1 · answered by Rebecca P 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Your first supposition is wrong. Bodies are made of value as are all things.
Personalities are real and are the expressions of the value of which we are made shaped by our personal experiences.
Soul is totally imaginary created by the need of a body to be more than the sterile material of matter. Being made of value (as all things are) ends the dichotomy of matter versus spirit as value conceptually fills both needs.
Were matter actually matter it would have no motions and collect into one great inert blob. Matter does not exert forces because force requires motivation. Motivation/force only originates with value. (If you think this untrue ask yourself if it is true. Make your own decision.)
Our problem is to get away from the idea of matter. Even physics does not support the concept of matter and still the physicists talk of matter. Matter is the most destructive imagination man has ever had. JH
2007-09-22 01:57:23 · answer #2 · answered by Wizard 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
To delve into that question one must entertain the idea of such things, things based in the spiritual world. The soul would be created not of matter per se but of spirit, our physical bodies are vessels that contain a the soul. Our personalities though are created internally within the brain. Those things can be traced to our physical self as well as upbringing. Though the soul that's something left for you to consider.
2007-09-21 14:04:16 · answer #3 · answered by caminolargo76 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Ultimately, minds, consciousness, and possibly even souls seem to be made up of minute electrical currents circulating around in the brain.
Doug
2007-09-21 14:04:19 · answer #4 · answered by doug_donaghue 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Your expertise isn't an intangible dwelling cloud this is dwelling on your physique. You "are" your physique. Your suggestions is "bicameral," meaning it particularly is divided down the middle right into a left and good one million/2, and the third evolutional "tier" on your suggestions links the two halfs. Your expertise (your identity & your expertise specifically) basically works as long as your suggestions does. all of us comprehend this for a "fact" now days interior the 21st Century... 2 thousand years in the past, human beings could not clarify "expertise," as a result they "assumed" it replaced right into a seperately invisible "spirit" interior them, and that they based an excellent form of literature and lots of their historic debts based upon that very vast fake assumption. Your physique senses the ecosystem, then your suggestions perceives the documents, then your suggestions senses that it fairly is "perceiving," and it perceives that it fairly is "sensing" back and forth, and at appropriate to the age of two or 3 (via fact of long-term reminiscence storage) you start to enhance a "continous reminiscence loop" (your identity and character and sense of "personhood..." A metaphor may well be like once you carry 2 mirrors as much as mirror one yet another, an "phantasm" an limitless tunnel of mirrors seems in each and every mirror... yet those "mirror tunnels" are actually not authentic. they are "reflections" and that they have not have been given any actual lifestyles in certainty. same with your "spirit" or "suggestions" or however you want to call it. Your physique and suggestions are authentic. Your "persisted sense of expertise and identity" have not have been given any lifestyles in certainty the two. they are illusions, that can vanish fairly genuinely whilst the suggestions would not artwork good, or stops working altogether... all of us comprehend this for a fact now... What you're examining in that e book (The Bible) is purely fabulous literature. Very shifting, very awe-inspiring understanding each and every now and then, yet all seen through human beings, written through human beings, with out "outdoors invisible" impact. you're human. you're momentary. those are the information...do deny the certainty of my declare may well be such as believing that your laptop runs through a Sorcerer's magic.
2016-10-19 08:54:07 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
By looking for a conundrum, ones finds "guess what?"
Oh, a hint, the answer is not philosophy.
2007-09-21 16:13:15 · answer #6 · answered by canron4peace 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I don't believe in souls. We are simply organisms.
2007-09-21 13:57:05 · answer #7 · answered by Miss Evaline 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋