>From: "C. G. Estabrook" <galliher at alexia.lis.uiuc.edu>
>
>[From John Horgan (2000) "The Undiscovered Mind: How the Brain Defies
>Explanation," pp. 248f.]
>
>Materialism, Chomsky elaborated, presupposes that the world consists of
>objects that interact through direct contact with each other. But Newton,
>by discovering gravity - action at a distance - showed that materialism
>doesn't work even for a phenomenon as simple as a ball rolling down a
>plane. The world consists not of material objects influencing each other
>through direct contact but of immaterial *properties*. These properties
>include gravity, electomagnetism, and yes, consciousness. "It's an
>interesting element of the human irrationality, that people continue to
>talk about the mind-body problem," Chomsky said. "I should say I haven't
>convinced a lot of people."
Thumb's up to Noam. Materialist metaphysical reductionism (as opposed to materialist methodological reductionism) is just plain silly. (As is atheism, in my opinion.)
A sworn agnostic, Chris D.
_________________________________________________________________ STOP MORE SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail