X-Message-Number: 25450
Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2004 16:07:49 -0500
From: Francois <>
Subject: To Richard

Well, after reading your latest reply, I'm afraid we must do the gentlemanly
thing, and agree to disagree. The whole discussion reminds me of an ancient
story I read about Greek philosophers in a tavern, arguing about how many
teeth a horse has. Each were giving very well thought of arguments in
support of their own points of views as well as refuting the other's
arguments, and they were going nowhere. At one point, one of the
philosophers asked one of the other patrons of the tavern to referee. They
each told him their arguments and then asked that he decide which was the
correct answer. The patron went outside for a few minutes, came back and
gave them the correct answer. The philosophers were amazed at how quickly he
had reached his decision and asked him which of their arguments had been the
deciding factor. To which he said that no argument had won him over, he had
simply gone to the stable, picked a horse and counted its teeth.

Thruth is, we do not have a horse to count its teeth. We do not know what a
subjective sense of self is, how the hunk of matter in our heads produces it
and what contitions are necessary, and sufficient, for it to arise. What we
are saying about brains producing minds is as pertinent as explaining why
light goes through glass by saying that glass is transparent. We can label
and discuss and argue until we are blue in the face, it will get us nowhere.
These answers must await studies that have not been made yet. Just like we
now have a solid quantum mechanical understanding of transparency, we will
someday have an equally solid understanding of how self awareness works.
Until then, it was a most enjoyable discussion and I thank you very much for
it.

Francois
The Devil fears those who learn more
than those who pray

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