I also think that there is the subject, but it is not a property of matter. I see it as a kind of organizing principle that regulates our existence in the material world by uniting our ideas in the flow of events we call life. It needs the material organism for its being, but it does not emerge from matter. It also need not be any kind of substance, it is transcendental. It is something that is common to us, and our individual consciousnesses are its manifestations. Besides being simple, this idea has the advantage that the transcendental subject can be detected in reflection, as e.g. the cogito of Descartes, whereas the substantial subject, if there is such a thing, cannot be found by any method.Consul wrote:Yes, there is: the subject. Necessarily, where there are items of mentality/experientiality, there are subjects of mentality/experientiality. You cannot have mental/experiential properties or states without anything having or being in them. The subject or ego isn't itself part of the content of its mind/consciousnes, being "content-transcendent" rather than "content-immanent"; so it cannot discover itself introspectively. Nevertheless, the subject or ego must be there, and it must be different from its mind/consciousness.
Can we solve the mind-body problem?
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Re: Can we solve the mind-body problem?
- Consul
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Re: Can we solve the mind-body problem?
My view of subjects is mundane: they are a kind of material objects/substances, viz. animal organisms (animals). I am a human animal.Tamminen wrote:I also think that there is the subject, but it is not a property of matter. I see it as a kind of organizing principle that regulates our existence in the material world by uniting our ideas in the flow of events we call life. It needs the material organism for its being, but it does not emerge from matter. It also need not be any kind of substance, it is transcendental. It is something that is common to us, and our individual consciousnesses are its manifestations. Besides being simple, this idea has the advantage that the transcendental subject can be detected in reflection, as e.g. the cogito of Descartes, whereas the substantial subject, if there is such a thing, cannot be found by any method.
- Atreyu
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Re: Can we solve the mind-body problem?
Everything's a "property of matter", it's just in this case the matter is not known. That's the whole reason for the mind-body problem in the first place. We can clearly differentiate between ourselves (our awareness, our mind), which appears to be non-material (intangible), and the phenomena which our minds are aware of, which always appears to be material (tangible), thus paving the way for a strange dualism that needs to be reconciled.Tamminen wrote: I also think that there is the subject, but it is not a property of matter. I see it as a kind of organizing principle that regulates our existence in the material world by uniting our ideas in the flow of events we call life. It needs the material organism for its being, but it does not emerge from matter. It also need not be any kind of substance, it is transcendental. It is something that is common to us, and our individual consciousnesses are its manifestations. Besides being simple, this idea has the advantage that the transcendental subject can be detected in reflection, as e.g. the cogito of Descartes, whereas the substantial subject, if there is such a thing, cannot be found by any method.
But it's easily reconciled when we understand that the "material of the mind" is simply something we cannot ordinarily perceive and cognize as such....
2024 Philosophy Books of the Month
2023 Philosophy Books of the Month
Mark Victor Hansen, Relentless: Wisdom Behind the Incomparable Chicken Soup for the Soul
by Mitzi Perdue
February 2023
Rediscovering the Wisdom of Human Nature: How Civilization Destroys Happiness
by Chet Shupe
March 2023