Tag Archives: mind

Why Are There No Molecule/Water Dualists?

Posted on January 19, 2014 by Santi Tafarella

The question. I had a question pop into my head yesterday morning: Why are there no molecule/water dualists in the same way that there are brain/mind dualists? The obvious answer: Because there is nothing at stake religiously. We all presume … Continue reading →

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Metaphor Generators: Douglas Hofstadter and Shakespeare

Posted on October 29, 2013 by Santi Tafarella

I’ve been reading Douglas Hofstadter’s new book, Surfaces and Essences, in which he posits an analogy model for what human intelligence ultimately is, and I notice that the new November edition of The Atlantic has a profile piece on Hofstadter, a … Continue reading →

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David Chalmers on Consciousness

Posted on August 24, 2013 by Santi Tafarella
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Free Will and the Origin of Consciousness

Posted on August 12, 2013 by Santi Tafarella

Am I missing something here? If contra-causal free will does not exist–and most non-dualist philosophers and scientists insist that it doesn’t, then how did consciousness ever evolve? It’s logically possible that we could all be zombies–though we’re not–without the least … Continue reading →

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Is Mind a Fluke of Nature?

Posted on May 13, 2013 by Santi Tafarella

According to atheist and University of Chicago biologist Jerry Coyne, probably: As for mind being nothing but a fluke of nature, well, that’s probably true, at least the human mind, since I don’t see our evolution as inevitable (it may … Continue reading →

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Neuroscience for Buddhists: Externalism Nicely Explained

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Santi Tafarella

At the New York Review of Books, Tim Parks recounts his experience of having a beer with Riccardo Manzotti, a man who believes that consciousness does not reside in the brain. Monzotti is an externalist who thinks the subject-object split … Continue reading →

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Quantum Dieting: Change Your Measurements, Change Your Life

Posted on April 10, 2012 by Santi Tafarella

An article in Seed surveys some recent research on quantum physics’s implications for common sense reality. Here’s the problem: [N]one of us perceives the world as it exists fundamentally. We do not observe the tiniest bits of matter, nor the forces … Continue reading →

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I Connectome, Therefore I Am?

Posted on April 5, 2012 by Santi Tafarella

Sebastian Seung is Professor of Computational Neuroscience and Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and in his new book, Connectome: How the Brain’s Wiring Makes Us Who We Are (Houghton Mifflin 2012), he defines a connectome in the following manner: … Continue reading →

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The Grain of Sand Argument for God’s Existence

Posted on September 2, 2011 by Santi Tafarella

Here are some famous lines from William Blake: To see a world in a grain of sand, And a heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour. It’s one thing … Continue reading →

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Global Debt Slavery Watch: Economic Anthropologist David Graeber Thinks Slavery and Debt Slavery May Be a Distinction Without Much of a Difference

Posted on August 30, 2011 by Santi Tafarella

At Naked Capitalism, Dublin-based journalist Philip Pilkington asks economic anthropologist David Graeber an intriguing question: We know that in many Western countries over the past few years households have been running up enormous debts, from credit card debts to mortgages … Continue reading →

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Critical Thinking Watch: Why Atheism is as Question Begging As Theism

Posted on July 13, 2011 by Santi Tafarella

Is the atheist conclusion that matter preceded mind from the very “beginning” of the universe more plausible, evidence-based, or rational than the theist conclusion (that mind preceded matter)? I say no. Here’s why. As a matter of logic, if you reject the … Continue reading →

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Sun Salutation

Posted on July 7, 2011 by Santi Tafarella

_____ True shield of Aten, color of Van Gogh’s Beard, in an eggy apron of aloes My skin I present to you. O mushroom Atomic; aureola at noon; yolk; bloom Atop Earth’s dome of blue: meet your black pupil (That … Continue reading →

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Near Death Experience (NDE) Watch: Waiting for Dr. Sam Parnia

Posted on May 22, 2011 by Santi Tafarella

Late last year, the Wall Street Journal had an interesting piece on near death experiences (NDEs), and it included an aspect on the phenomenon that I’d never heard of before: near death awareness: In his book, “Visions, Trips and Crowds,” David … Continue reading →

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Something Good about America: Not Oil Wells, But Mind Wells

Posted on April 23, 2011 by Santi Tafarella

Notice in this 60 Minutes segment that Indian geniuses are not flocking to oil-rich Arab countries where a conformist religion like Islam dominates the culture. Instead, they come to Enlightenment-based secular California, to Silicon Valley. Silicon Valley is a mind well … Continue reading →

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God: The Ghost Writer Who Isn’t There?

Posted on February 28, 2011 by Santi Tafarella

At Slate this month, Jesse Bering reflects on the human inclination to project mental properties (such as beliefs and purposes), not only onto people, but animals, inanimate objects, and God: When others violate our expectations for normalcy or stump us with … Continue reading →

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Stanley Fish on What Distinguishes Us from Computers

Posted on February 23, 2011 by Santi Tafarella

At the New York Times this week, Stanley Fish offers the following as a key distinction between himself and a computer: [I]ts procedures do not track my practice. I am not self-consciously generating a pattern of statistical frequencies. I am … Continue reading →

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Is the Placebo Effect a Problem for Atheism?

Posted on February 1, 2011 by Santi Tafarella

Catholic journalist Denise O’Leary seems quite persuaded that the placebo effect stubbornly resists any plausible materialist explanation, and so is a problem for atheists. (O’Leary wrote, with a neuroscientist by the name of Mario Beauregard, an interesting book a few years back … Continue reading →

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The self-made soul? Do you make a soul as an author makes a novel, one moment of awareness at a time?

Posted on January 6, 2011 by Santi Tafarella

I’m not sure what, exactly, the soul is (“I am that I am?”), but I do think I’m closing in, at least for myself, on what the soul does. Here’s the theory I’m working with. Please help me refine it if you think I’m missing something … Continue reading →

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David Chalmers on Hard v. Soft Emergence with Regard to Consciousness

Posted on October 31, 2010 by Santi Tafarella

David Chalmers discusses hard v. soft emergence and why consciousness falls into the former category:

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Spectres of Reality or the Reality of Spectres?

Posted on October 31, 2010 by Santi Tafarella

Shane McCorristine’s new book on ghosts titled Spectres of the Self: Thinking about Ghosts and Ghost-Seeing in England, 1750-1920  (Cambridge 2010) receives a good review from Jonathan Barnes in The Times of London: What interests McCorristine about these alleged outbreaks of the paranormal is … Continue reading →

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