Let's assume, for the sake of argument, that mentality is real. By this I mean there are two types of reality, the mental and physical, both equally real. The thoughts I have are some kind of "thing" as real as the tree out in my front yard.
1. This means there are things that are not corporeal but real. They have no physical dimensions. We can't talk about how long or wide they are or how much they weigh or what their velocity is.
2. It is not, IMO, possible for mentality to somehow evolve out
of physicality. There is a sheer gap between the two, no stages in between physicality and mentality.
3. This lack of stages is not to be confused with stages of consciousness. We can speak of semi-consciousness, for example, and we can imagine that some animal might have a permanent state of semi-consciousness compared to humans. But that does not mean that there are these things in him which are partially mental and partially physical. Something is either mental or physical; there can be no mixture. If consciousness is something mental, then so is semi-consciousness.
4. Of course, the mind is dependent on the brain. All you have to do is drink some wine, like I did last night, to realize that. But that doesn't mean that the mind is the brain, or that the brain can create a mind. How is it going to do this? How does mere increasing complexity and quantity of neural connections emerge into a "thought"?
This message has been edited by robinrohan, 12-24-2004 02:50 PM
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