No, I'm not talking about the fandangled mandangler. Your stomach has neurons - about the same as a cat's brain!
So even though it's not able to give "specific and articulable facts" having a gut feeling is real because the blood goes from your stomach to your muscles.
Here's the BBC story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18779997
The brain is the basic hardware which also registers all kinds of physical sensations and emotional responses BUT it's your intellect - the software - which everyone can and should develop to the maximum of their mental abilities, in order to function at the most advanced level as an educated, cultural being who understands what their emotions or these gut feelings are telling them to first see where they are actually coming from, and not let themselves be driven by these impulses without first running them through our minds most advanced system of reflection and cognitive analysis, our intellect ...
I thought people only use 10% of their brains on average.
if the software=soul=chemical brain functions (i.e. 'hardware')
then there is no software.
Correct?
That would be incorrect. The left side of the brain handles our logic, reason, sane reasoning and the right side handles all senses(touch, smell, taste, sight and sound) for storage.
The brain itself is the hardware. The software would be consciousness.
Define consciousness - as fat as I know there is still not a definition that does not involve a soul.
Consciousness isn't a soul.
So what is your point.
What is consciousness? I don't believe there is a definition yet other than "subjectivity, awarenes".
The scientific study of human consciousness is no longer the dualist theory of Descartes, yes?
I don't know Descartes, so I'm not sure exactly what you're asking.
I do have an understanding about Duality. I wouldn't know if it matches or is similar to Descartes' understanding. I'm not a student of philosophy and haven't ever been.
If you're looking for a "soul", then it would be comparative to the human psyche. Otherwise, it doesn't exist.
The Human Psyche would be the metaphysical explanation, which could be derived as a "soul" or "spirit". Just remember, "soul" and "spirit" are mysticism based ideologies. Both words describe a person's actions.
Physical and Metaphysical are the duality of humankind.
Decarte's theory of dualism is that the mind & body are separate which is familiar to most folks. Now, it's no longer thought of a mind/body dualism, the mind/body is to be thought as one. But dualism is so ingrained in our thinking it is a hard habit to break.
"no scientific theory for the one thing that we really know very well: our consciousness, our awareness of being us, ourselves."[1]
"Epiphenomenalism is the view that one's actions are not caused by one's thoughts: that we are really just passive spectators under the illusion that we control our own behaviour." [2]
"We feel our consciousness is located at one point (brain perhaps), but do we know that it is really centralised, and does it need such a locality ? "[3]
Is a skin cell on my big toe self-aware about being part of a foot? Are cancer cells 'rebels' that run rampant out-of-control?
And this is why I'm into zombies so much:
"A philosophical zombie is a molecule by molecule duplicate of a sentient creature, a normal human-being, for example, but who differs from that creature in lacking any phenomenal consciousness. For me, as I lie on the beach, happily drinking some wine and watching the waves, I undergo a variety of visual, olfactory, and gustatory experiences. But my zombie twin experiences nothing at all. He has no phenomenal consciousness. Since my twin is an exact physical duplicate of me, his inner psychological states will be functionally isomorphic with my own (assuming he is located in an identical environment). Whatever physical stimulus is applied, he will process the stimulus in the same way as I do, and produce exactly the same behavioral responses. Indeed, on the assumption that non-phenomenal psychological states are functional states (that is, states definable in terms of their role or function in mediating between stimuli and behavior), my zombie twin has just the same beliefs, thoughts, and desires as I do. He differs from me only with respect to experience." [4]
"the term "mental retardation" is not used; as such, Chicago Public Schools uses "cognitive impairment (mild, moderate, severe)"[5]
Maybe we are too stupid to ask the right questions, that this life is akin to a butterfly's pupa stage and when we 'die' , heaven is greater self-awareness & true free will?
I don't know. Just know that there is no definition for what consciousness is if drop the dualism of "Descartes [who] was merely indicating that the "feeling" of thought is proof that he exists" [6]
Can a zombie be self aware? Guided by Parasites: Toxoplasma Modified Humans @ http://tobiastenney.com/2010/06/toxoplasma/
[1]http://www.scaruffi.com/nature/consciou.html
[2]http://www.consciousentities.com/deadends.htm
[3]http://www.calresco.org/alien.htm
[4]http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qualia/
[5]http://www.cpsspecialeducation.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1639&Itemid=648
[6]http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=572884
Further reading: "Consciousness and Its Implication" by Daniel Robinson
Interesting.
I'm of the fact that duality exists even on the small unit we can measure in the Universe.
Is that smallest unit conscious?
Is the Earth conscious?
Is the Universe conscious?
If all three are conscious on some level whether it's recognized by a "self" type of awareness or not, is something that isn't known at this time. Or can we recognize conscious actions?
I'm pretty sure that this discussion will more than likely now move onto you telling me about the brain, how it works and that perception is nothing more than illusion.
Secondly, I relate Duality more further than the human body and mind, and even if you wanted to, called it one? Then you still would not be able to eliminate duality, because "Ego vs Conscience" these two are part of duality as I understand it both reside inside one person, which cannot be eliminated. Neither of them can be eliminated, both of them need applied action and understanding, to properly balance them out.
I also attach duality to "cause" and "effect" which is something else you cannot presently do away with. It still remains the foundation for our knowledge. If you want to eliminate that, then eliminate all knowledge and dismiss it as if it has no meaning. Good luck with that.
Hey your predicted about me talking about the brain part is correct! Must be your higher consciousness.
I thought it was interest about having a 'cat' brain in your stomach. The bicameral brain in our heads is probably why humans have duality thinking. One can speak & do math, the other uses images. But with a brain also in our stomach - well now we have the 'third man' in the room, Mr. Gut-Feeling and that probably helps us to understand danger in way that can not be said into words.
"I got a funny feeling about that new guy at work - but I can't explain why....."
Then you thinking brain tries to tease out why:
Is it the face tattoos or the smell of death from his pickup truck? Maybe he hunts deer.....hmmmmm.
Consciousness is nothing more than a higher developed form of awareness ... a soul is a religious and metaphysical idea which does not exist in the real world!
Sorry, but I'm of the understand that any "intuition" or "gut instinct" wouldn't be another brain, but just another function of our subconsciousness attempting to break through to the conscious mind.
It's interesting to read about some of the misconceptions how to apply ones cognitive capacity to develop an intelligent thought structure where learning how to advance ones intellect becomes the central tool to work with ones mental processes
My observation has been that we can penetrate our physical body with our concentrated attention. Not many people realize this. It does take a sustained concentrative course such as a ten-day Vipassana Meditation course to make one aware of this. However, once experienced, we begin to realize that we are neither our brains or our bodies and that our 'mind' is extant right throughout our whole physicality. More than that, it surrounds it. Exactly where its periphery is a mystery, though I have my personal views on this.
It we endevour to find a 'centre' to our being, perhaps within the brain, it cannot be found. In some ways our body, though it feels very real to us, is a sort of illusion, for the subatomic particles which make it up are arising (seemingly out of nowhere, but obviously from another dimension beyond our ken) and passing away at an incredible speed. You could say that the man who steps into the shower actually has anoter body when he steps out of it.
There appear to be no change, for the patterns which the arising particles take change very, very slowly. However, they do change. We age as they do so.
At the risk of sounding like the dumbest contributor to this thread, I would like to note -- now I know why when I watch House on TV, and there is a struggle over a brain problem there is a counterargument over a gut problem.
For what that's worth...
by Alexander A. Villarasa 12 years ago
The eminent and prominent physicist, Stephen Hawkings avers, in an interview with a British magazine, that the human brain is nothing more than a computer, and when that computer malfunctions then stops operating altogether, the human who has that computer( brain), dies and does not...
by Alexander A. Villarasa 9 years ago
Debate rages as to whether the qualities of conscious experience can be explained simply as the workings of the physical brain or whether there MUST be an additional ingredient of a nonphysical kind.Generally speaking, consciousness is simply the introspective access to mental states. ie you and me...
by marinealways24 14 years ago
How does consciousness happen?
by ngureco 9 years ago
After physical death, does the soul remain conscious and aware of what is going on around it?After physical death, does the soul remain conscious and aware of what is going on around it both in heaven and on earth?
by marinealways24 12 years ago
I think natural selection is conscious selection. I think any life must have consciousness/awareness of it's environment for Natural Selection to be selection. Without a consciousness or awareness of the environment, there is no selection in adaptation of the environment to better survive. I would...
by Misha 16 years ago
I asked this question in another thread, and got this excellent answer from Jenny:However, there are more people willing to answer this, too - and we don't want to hi-jack the other thread So, if you can add something to what Jenny wrote, or give your own unique version, I would appreciate it Thank...
Copyright © 2024 The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers on this website. HubPages® is a registered trademark of The Arena Platform, Inc. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers to this website may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website.
Copyright © 2024 Maven Media Brands, LLC and respective owners.
As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.
For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy
Show DetailsNecessary | |
---|---|
HubPages Device ID | This is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons. |
Login | This is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service. |
Google Recaptcha | This is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy) |
Akismet | This is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Google Analytics | This is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Traffic Pixel | This is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized. |
Amazon Web Services | This is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy) |
Cloudflare | This is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Hosted Libraries | Javascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy) |
Features | |
---|---|
Google Custom Search | This is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Maps | Some articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Charts | This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy) |
Google AdSense Host API | This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Google YouTube | Some articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Vimeo | Some articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Paypal | This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Login | You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Maven | This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy) |
Marketing | |
---|---|
Google AdSense | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Google DoubleClick | Google provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Index Exchange | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Sovrn | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Ads | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Unified Ad Marketplace | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
AppNexus | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Openx | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Rubicon Project | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
TripleLift | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Say Media | We partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy) |
Remarketing Pixels | We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites. |
Conversion Tracking Pixels | We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service. |
Statistics | |
---|---|
Author Google Analytics | This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy) |
Comscore | ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Tracking Pixel | Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy) |
Clicksco | This is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy) |