Dear Colleagues:
I would like to add to this discussion, within which each participant appreciates some aspect of the issue/s at hand.
It seems we are stuck at a brick wall when it comes to the idea of the "consciousness hard problem.”
From my position (a natural “philosopher", allopathic physician, and pathologist) we seem to be stuck trying to explicate consciousness by considering “brain” function in terms of primary neurophysiology alone - though we allude to a role being performed by “other” elements, such as connectomes.
That is, trying to understand a complex physiologic function/product in terms of neurons, glia, synapses, neurotransmitters, etc, alone, falls short of our intents.
We can’t, for instance, understand and explain a bicycle in terms only of it’s chain drive, can we?
Minsky’s comment that "mind is what brain does," affords some insight.
Mind is a product of the brain, the body within which it lies (think 4E), and the mind/body's interaction within the environment within which it exists.
From the internet:
The brain is an organ but the mind isn't. The brain is the physical place where the mind resides (sic). ... The mind is the manifestations of thought, perception, emotion, determination, memory and imagination that takes place within the brain. Mind is often used to refer especially to the thought processes of reason. A simplistic but conceptually useful definition - see also: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mind.
But surely, far more than primary neurophysiology is involved in generating consciousness, or “the mind,” for that matter.
A more expansive view of neurophysiology suggests that at least 9 or more levels of neurophysiology are recognizable.
If we were to be able to understand and describe the interactions of all levels of neurophysiology, perhaps the problem would not be so “hard.”
In seems the mind (and one of its components, consciousness) is a non-physical construct arising from complex neurophysiological interactions.
Please find attached an incomplete draft of an expanded iteration of the recognizable levels of neurophysiology.
I include it in hopes that there may be some constructive criticism of this concept.
It may also serve as an aid for those with sleep problems.
Simply put, we have not reached a level of brain neurophysiology which enables one to understand how the brain/body produces that product we consider a “mind.”
The “mind” is, at least, an emergent non-physical physiologic product arising in the brain as a result of the physical and non-physical brain/mind/body/environment interactions - other compounding factors being “equal."
Best regards,
Waldemar
To unsubscribe from the TOK-SOCIETY-L list:
write to: mailto:[log in to unmask]
or click the following link:
http://listserv.jmu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=TOK-SOCIETY-L&A=1