Is mind a spiritual (non-material) entity? (moral, reject, Darwin, Moses)

[coberst]

Is mind a spiritual (non-material) entity?

Idealism is a label for the philosophical position that rejects realism. Realism is the view that the world is only matter and that objects are independent of mind and can be known as they really are. Idealism stresses the spiritual (other worldly) characteristic of mind, which is different in kind from body.

Idealism has many definitions but all focus on the assumption that consciousness is detached from its concrete socially situated subjects. Such an assumption leads to the isolation of ideas from the concrete body. Theories, beliefs, human conduct and other products can be understood and analyzed in isolation from the historical subject. A giant unbridgeable gap develops between mind and body.

Idealism holds the twin principles nature or matter on one hand and spirit, God, ego, etc. on the other. Man and woman are creatures harboring two distinctly different realities within one structure. We are bipartite beings. Thought, especially theoretical thought is a substance of the spirit thus intellectual, moral, artistic and such are activities of the spirit.

Consciousness is the property of the spirit and because spirit transcends the world of matter then philosophers surmise consciousness is autonomous and independent, governed by non-material principles.

This tradition of an autonomous reason began long before evolutionary theory and has held strongly since then without consideration, it seems to me, of the theories of Darwin and of biological science. Cognitive science has in the last three decades developed considerable empirical evidence supporting Darwin and not supporting the traditional theories of philosophy and psychology regarding the autonomy of reason. Cognitive science has focused a great deal of empirical science toward discovering the nature of the embodied mind.

The three major findings of cognitive science are:
The mind is inherently embodied.
Thought is mostly unconscious.
Abstract concepts are largely metaphorical.

These findings of cognitive science are profoundly disquieting for traditional thinking in two respects. “First, they tell us that human reason is a form of animal reason, a reason inextricably tied to our bodies and the peculiarities of our brains. Second, these results tell us that our bodies, brains, and interactions with our environment provide the mostly unconscious basis for our everyday metaphysics, that is, our sense of what is real.”

I hold the view that there is no body/mind dichotomy (division into two mutually exclusive or contradictory groups or entities). It seems to me that one must be an idealist to believe that a person has a soul. Do you have a different view and does that view agree with Darwin’s view of natural selection?

Quotes from “Philosophy in the Flesh”.

[doppelgänger]

I think that mind is an effect of body. Similar to how Moses couldn't look on the face of God but could only look upon his backside after his passing, we cannot through introspection look directly upon consciousness but can only perceive it by its creation of and effect on awareness of being.

This why we can alter consciousness and even self-awareness by altering the physiology of the brain. We do this in dreams all the time. Some have done it by way of mind-altering drugs. There are many cases of personality and consciousness alteration from traumatic brain injury. One can even have the brief experience of loss of self-identity in these altered states and become a being one doesn't recognize as one's self.

[Random]

Mind = the data, plane and dimension of thought and consciousness. Brain = the processor, motherboard, sound and graphics card to enable the relay and disemmination of sensory input from both external and internal sources.

[eudaimonia]

I don't think that a human being is two entities, one material and the other spiritual, stuck together. I think that the human being is a single entity with both material and mental powers (i.e. abilities). I count myself as a realist since I do not see mental and spiritual powers as belonging to different "realities". There is only one reality -- that which includes conscious material beings.


eudaimonia,

Mark

[michel]

Originally Posted by eudaimonia

I don't think that a human being is two entities, one material and the other spiritual, stuck together. I think that the human being is a single entity with both material and mental powers (i.e. abilities). I count myself as a realist since I do not see mental and spiritual powers as belonging to different "realities". There is only one reality -- that which includes conscious material beings.


eudaimonia,

Mark

I don't think that a human being is two entities, one material and the other spiritual, stuck together

I do. But I think that the mind is a combination of the brain and the subconscious 'monitoring' systems of the body...heat, cold, pain, no pain, aware of being tired etc.