Where does thought come from? was Re: lbo-talk-digest V1 #4706

[Dennis Breslin]

> In other words, Peter is saying that _either_ mental events exist in a
> world of their own, prior to and independently of all physical activity,
> _or_ they are nothing. If we are not angels we are merely automatons. I
> think this is usually called dualism. Damasio points out that while
> Descartes's separation of "mind" and "brain" has been rejected by most,
> most still do cling to a crude separation of brain and body. Cf. the
> frequent science fiction plot involving a brain kept alive in a bottle
> and still thinking.
> 
> Carrol

For the life of me I don't know how you see yourself as doing things
different, 'cept that you replace a blunt and primordial idealism with
a blunt and primordial variant of behaviorism.  Dualism is ever
present or ever present as in the emphases we place on things
in social theory but there are degrees of extreme.  

Dennis Breslin