An Ancient Explanation.
A soul interacts with a body and, after death, enters a hereafter or another body. This happens in Poul Anderson's fantasies, e.g., The King Of Ys (with Karen Anderson).
A Scientific Explanation
Neurons interact in a brain. In some of Anderson's sf, a neuronic pattern is recorded and inputted to another body or to an inorganic artifact.
Buddhists reject the idea of an immortal soul but retain mental-physical dualism. Although I meditate, I accept the scientific explanation so I think that neurons are continually interacting both in ordinary consciousness and when we meditate.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
As a Catholic I believe in the first AND second alternatives. Except the bit about the souls of deceased persons being reincarnated.
Ad astra! Sean
We should avoid reductionism. A personality is a pattern of interacting information. The neurons are the -means-.
I agree vis-a-vis avoidance of reductionism.
A personality is conscious. "Information" may be unconscious. E.g., a text book contains information but is not conscious of it. If I memorize some of the information, then I have become conscious of it. The information is one of the objects of my consciousness but is not itself conscious. E.g., I know the multiplication table but we do not say that the multiplication table knows anything.
I think that consciousness is undefinable. Any attempted definition either (i) includes synonyms of consciousness (experience, knowledge etc), therefore is tautologous or (ii) leaves out consciousness by reducing it to observable behavior or to detectable electrochemical processes etc.
Can you write "X is..." and fill in the blank without using synonyms for consciousness but in such a way that whoever reads your completed sentence says, "X is what we mean by 'consciousness.'"?
Post a Comment