Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site watdcsu.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!bellcore!petrus!scherzo!allegra!ulysses!burl!clyde!watmath!watnot!watdcsu!dmcanzi From: dmcanzi@watdcsu.UUCP (David Canzi) Newsgroups: net.philosophy Subject: mind vs. brain Message-ID: <1794@watdcsu.UUCP> Date: Fri, 25-Oct-85 22:55:19 EST Article-I.D.: watdcsu.1794 Posted: Fri Oct 25 22:55:19 1985 Date-Received: Thu, 31-Oct-85 20:57:25 EST Distribution: net Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario Lines: 27 Let me suggest the following analogy: mind is to brain as digestion is to stomach. (Somebody else recently used this analogy in a net article. I'm borrowing it.) Nobody ever talks of digestion/stomach dualism. Nobody ever wonders whether digestion is just a function performed by the stomach, or whether digestion exists, perhaps, somewhere outside of physical reality, on some "digestive plane" of existence. Nobody ever writes articles claiming that "no machine can produce digestion". Why not? Because everybody understands that the word "digestion" is a word we use to describe activities performed by the stomach, ie. the stomach digests food. This is made easy to understand by the fact that, for the noun "digestion" denoting activities, there is a handy verb, "digest", which denotes the same activities. The noun "mind", similarly, denotes some activities performed by the brain. Unfortunately, our language doesn't provide us with a handy verb to denote these activities, so many people tend to sucked into thinking of "the" mind as a "thing". So people waste millions of hours wondering if "the" mind exists, where does "it" exist, etc. The important thing to remember is that the lack of a handy verb to go with the word "mind" is a feature of the language with which we attempt to describe reality, and doesn't imply anything about the reality we are attempting to describe. -- David Canzi, an entirely physical phenomenon.