Comments | leafofgrass: Random thoughts and other such detritus

leafofgrass

Random thoughts and other such detritus

Jun 04, 2004 19:22

*I arrived home safely on Wednesday evening after driving the 20-something hours from Memphis. Upon arrival, I checked my e-mail to discover that I had passed my comprehensive exam--only three more to go! Unless, of course, I decide to transfer ( Read more... )

Comments 6

warning: writing under the influence of recent Dennett consumption noetickerf June 4 2004, 18:32:32 UTC

" [...] Do I really want to read another tale of how sodium and electricity in my brain work together to give me qualitative self-awareness?" The answer to that was a clear "no" so I moved on.ok, knowing your devotion to heidegger, i'm pretty sure i can sketch out the beginnings of why the "no" would be so strong from you, but (since you're bored) i thought you might tell me to what extent the "no" is aesthetic, and to what extent it's principled. in particular, are you committed to a position in which we posit something called "qualitative self-awareness" that should not be able to be descibed in terms of the movement of sodium and potassium ions? if so, will you tell me something about the underpinnings of this position. (i admit that asking the question so naively is a little forced, but i really am up in the air about the relation of consciousness/subjectivity/awareness in existential philosophy to the above in neuroscience, and it's keeping me awake at night (as witness recent post about being an object) so i'm soliciting all ( ... )

Re: warning: writing under the influence of recent Dennett consumption leafofgrass June 4 2004, 20:09:12 UTC

My problem isn't necessarily with mental causation in general, it the fact that there is so much built into the acceptance of such a belief. Being a huge fan of Merleau-Ponty, I like to base things in the body and, additionally, I don't have an automatic distaste for the findings of science. That when I think sodium, potassium, calcium, and whatever else floats around in my brain (to use technical language), I cannot deny. But what does that mean? To date, no one has sufficiently explained to me how these chemicals translate into experience--Kripke's identity theory response strikes me as a particularly poor attempt at understanding the issue--and until someone can, I reject to biological reductionist response. This is not an ad ignoratum for the simple reason that I am not claiming the opposite--the independent existence of some sort of "mind"--to be true. I just don't think that the solution to the mind-body problem is going to come from any of the metaphysical realist positions ( ... )

noetickerf June 4 2004, 18:34:31 UTC

and congrats on the comps.

i'm curious where you might think about transferring to.

leafofgrass June 4 2004, 19:28:11 UTC

(I'll answer this first since it's easier ( ... )

zougwa June 4 2004, 20:01:30 UTC

I suspect that Crespo will be sent down when Nomar comes back, and Youkilis will stay as long as he keeps hitting. They might try to make a deal for Mueller when he comes off the DL.

Anyway, hello. I added you a while back, and this is my first opportunity to buzz in with a reply.

madamebovary June 5 2004, 00:21:39 UTC

Still workin on the ben and jerry's? heh.

I must ask where you're shopping for these books and how you managed to find them at such absurd prices. holy crap!

I've heard much of Bergson, I should like to read that book at some point, but you know how i am with covers, so i won't ask to borrow it. :-p

this is the longest post i think you've ever written...oh...and btw...just because you're living in memphis now doesn't mean you can start using the concoction of letters that is "y'all"

:) i really liked seeing you the other night. funtimes.