MYSTICAL JELLY: monism

Showing posts with label monism. Show all posts

Tuesday, 2 February 2016

Sunday, 25 March 2012

Bits of Dawkins

- Dawkins: Identity doesn’t survive death; the only part of us that “lives” on is genes and memes.

- Dawkins: Richard Dawkins would definitely argue that disembodied consciousness is impossible. He believes that the mind is not a separate entity, but instead a physical process that the body performs when our brain’s model of the world becomes so complete that it needs to include itself.

- Dawkins: Dawkins would say that the mind is just a physical process the body performs, and that it is not an ontologically distinct substance. He said that there is no “mystic jelly” driving us around, and that belief in the mind is a “dangerous myth”, as no scientific evidence supports it.

- Dawkins: As a physicalist, Dawkins would say that the mind is reducible to physical processes. He would say that we are completely physical, because the mind is just a process the body performs and is therefore not a separate substance. We are simply just bodies; there is no “mystic jelly”.

Dawkins (mind) – Dawkins was a monist who believed that the mind and body are not ontologically distinct. Dawkins believed that the mind is a product of the body and it is something the body does. Therefore as humans are no ontologically distinct, once dead, we will remain dead, as the mind is simply digital information.

Dawkins (body) – Dawkins was a monist who believed that the mind and body are not ontologically distinct. Dawkins further believes that once dead we remain dead, however believes that out genes and memes survive the death of our body.

Dawkins (personality/memories) – once dead we remain dead, yet our genes and memes live on.

1. Describe what Dawkins believes about the body in 50 words.

Richard Dawkins is a physicalist and so believes everything is reducible to physical processes, this means as a whole we are just a body with a brain and nothing more. Dawkins believes that our body dies and decays and the only thing that does live on is our genetic code.

2. Describe what Dawkins believes about the mind in 49 words.

Dawkins believes there is no such thing as a mind and it is not ontologically distinct from our body it is just digital information that describes what bodies do. The mind is not some mystical jelly that lives on after death and there’s no scientific evidence to believe so.

3. Describe what Dawkins believes about our self identity in 16 words.

It doesn’t live on in but memories of who we were may be remembered through others.

4. Describe what Dawkins believes about our disembodied consciousness in 45 words.

Dawkins believes there is no scientific evidence to suggest that we have some sort of mysterious, immaterial and eternal consciousness that lives on after death. Believing such things is dangerous to the human endeavour and can stop us as humans moving on as a species.

Dawkins on the mind – Dawkins believes that there is no such thing as a mind, or as it is sometimes referred to as the soul. However, he also states that the mind is just something the body does. Dawkins refers to the mind as mystical jelly, as he believes it just floats around. He’s a physicalist.

Dawkins on the body – Dawkins is a physicalist, which means he believes in the physical body being the main substance. As he is an atheist, he doesn’t believe that the mind lives on, but the physical body dies. Dawkins also says that we are carriers of genes and memes, which are memories.

Dawkins on self identity – Dawkins believes that our self identity dies with the body as there’s no personality in the mind.

Dawkins on disembodied consciousness – Dawkins believes that the mind is just something a body does, and this doesn’t make us, any more aware of the world around us than other animals. He believes that once the physical body dies, nothing is left behind as he calls the mind “mystical jelly”

Dawkins: When we die, our personality dies but our genes (genetic code) and memes, (ideas), survive us.

.Dawkins: He says there's no "spirit-driven life force, no throbbing, heaving, pullulating, protoplasmic mystic jelly", meaning there is no soul within us. Belief in the soul is "dangerous to human endeavour" This is because there's no physical evidence. It's just a bronze age myth.

DAWKINS -> MIND

Dawkins a 21st century monist thinks that belief in the mind or soul is dangerous myths that have no evidence to support them. He compared the mind to 'mystic jelly' inferring that there is no mysterious mind. To conclude the mind is just digital information, reducible to physical processes

DAWKINS -> BODY

Dawkins is a physicalist who believes everything is reducible to physical processes. He believes we are simply carriers of DNA and that mind and body are not separable. The mind is just a way of describing what bodies do. When our bodies die our genes and memes survive

DAWKINS -> SELF-IDENTITY

A sense of individuality is based on digital information, not the soul. We leave memes behind

DAWKINS -> SELF-AWARENESS

Dawkins is a evolutionary biologist who believes everything is reducible to physical processes. He rejected the idea of a soul or a 'mystic' mind. He believed the mind or consciousness arises when the brain's stimulation is so complete that it includes a model of itself

Dawkins – Self Identity
Dawkins believes that our self identity dies with the body

Dawkins – Disembodied Consciousness
Dawkins believes that when we die we are not conscious of things around us, because we are just simply carriers of DNA, and that we have no eternal soul. The only things we leave behind are genes and memes, the soul is just “mystical jelly.”

Dawkins – Mind
Dawkins believes that there is no such thing as the mind or as it sometimes referred to, as the soul. However he also states that the mind is just something the body doe. Dawkins refers to the mind as mystical jelly, as he believes it just floats around. He’s a physicalist.

Dawkins – Body
Dawkins is a physicalist, which means he believes in the physical body being the main substance. As he is an atheist, he doesn’t believe that the mind lives on, but the physical body dies. Dawkins also says that we are carriers of memes and genes, which are memories.

Dawkins on Consciousness - Dawkins believes that the conscience (which is the inner component of the human body showing awareness) dies at the same time as the body and will simply not continue to remain after the event of death. Similar to his concept of the personality, he states that it is not an immediate part of the human body that remains.

Dawkins on Personality - Richard Dawkins believe that the personality of a human body will certainly die in the event of death. He brands the personality as unexplainable (or to a certain degree) as the mind - which he entitles "Mystic Jelly". Similar to a Cartesian view, he appears vague with regards to after death.

Descartes on Consciousness - Descartes wholeheartedly believes that the consciousness (an awareness of the world around us) lives on past death and that it will continue to live on. Regardless of this statement, Descartes is quite vague with regards to what happens after. He mentions that this crucial awareness will most certainly remain past the event of the death of a body.

Dawkins on Body - Richard Dawkins believes that the body is a massively important part of life. We should trust in the body since, unlike the body, mind and soul, we have empirical evidence to prove we have one. He states that the body is the main component in life and that it will certainly not live on past death since we are witness to its falling and we can be certain of this. The body works mechanically and systematically and will fulfil its purpose of keeping us alive, its nature can be determined easily and therefore, it is the strongest representation of human

Saturday, 30 April 2011

Schopenhauer

The mind/body problem does not concern Schopenhauer, who explains in ‘The World as Will and Representation’, that there is only one central underlying principle behind reality: ‘the will’, and the world merely consists of the will, and representation is just a way of looking at the will. The relationship between the body and mind can also be explained through this theory, and as such, are representations of ‘the will’; mind and body are just different ways of looking at the same thing.

Ryle

Ryle had similar views to Dawkins, sharing his view that we are essentially physical beings and that there was no chance of an afterlife. Ryle is best known for his phrase ‘ghost in the machine’, which he coined to explain his idea that the soul or any argument that we were mental beings was false. He argued that the idea of the soul was a ‘category mistake’ that people made when they spoke of the mind or the soul. He claimed that when individuals speak of the mind and body as a different phenomenon they are making a linguistic error and that the idea of the human mind was as unreal as the thought of a ghost driving a machine. To Ryle, we are only physical beings, and any contrasting views to this derived from a fault in our language. Ryle believes that there is no chance of life after death, and that nothing of us is left behind when our bodies decay.

Ryle who is also a monist says similarly to Dawkins that we are just body. He says that the mind is a daft way of talking about the body. He also says things such as soul, self and consciousness is a daft way of talking about the body. This therefore means that the mind cannot exist separately from the body as we are only body.

Some more reading on Ryle here

Dawkins

Dualism is rejected by Dawkins, a scientific naturalist whom as an atheist does not believe in the metaphysical. Rather as a materialistic monist, Dawkins believes that the mind is merely a product of the body, and thus since it is not a distinct substance, cannot exist separate from the body. In fact he believes that the mind isn't what makes a person at all, but rather genes and memes. Genes and memes cannot exist separately of the physical world, but rather rely on physical things to propagate them, so that they can be carried on into future generations. If all the carriers of a gene or meme were to die, the particular gene or meme would cease to exist. Because genes and memes rely on physical things, they are not immortal entities, and thus when someone dies, nothing immortal or immaterial survives them, this includes the mind. Thus since the mind is a product of the body, there is no need to explain the problem of how the mind and body interact. This is a problem for Cartesian Dualism, since other animals other than humans have pineal glands, yet Descartes believed only humans have souls. Nor does he explain properly how the immaterial soul is meant to interact with the material pineal gland, nor properly justify why it is the pineal gland which does this. This is something Dawkins has no problem with, since he uses science to help explain how he appears to have a mind.

Dawkins is a monist, believing that humans are essentially physical beings. As an evolutionary biologist, Dawkins explains everything in terms of evolution. Dawkins rejected any idea of the soul. According to Dawkins, the soul or idea of the soul is ‘dangerous to human endeavour’, and it is a restrictive and inappropriate thing to believe in. He believes in a world that is entirely physical, rather than metaphysical. His view is that human beings are just carriers of DNA, and that any opposition to this was a myth supported by no evidence. He claimed that if an individual felt a sense of individuality or that they had a soul; it was just their thoughts based on digital information. He argued that consciousness, and an idea of the self, ‘arises when the brain’s simulation of the world becomes so complete that it must include a model of itself’. Dawkins disregarded the opposing idea that we are mental, rather than physical beings, claiming the soul to be a non-existent ‘mystic-jelly’. He believed that there was no possibility of an afterlife, and that all was left of us once we died was genes, and his invention memes which he used to describe the continuance of ideas, inventions and cultures.

Another monism concept which does not have an issue with the relationship between mind and body was presented by Dawkins. Dawkins explained that what we understand as a mind is simply an “emergent property” of the body. The mind simply arises as a result of the body’s interaction with the world. The world is only physical matter and there is no other “mystic jelly” or “spirit driven life force” that controls our actions. We are simply carriers of DNA so there is no mind and there is no soul that continues to exits after death. Although we as humans feel that there is a mind and a driving force behind our actions this is simply a misunderstanding. Dawkins outlines our consciousness as arising when our view of the world becomes so complex that it has to involve a model of ourselves. He argued that the mind is only a property of the body so it has no individuality and is not a separate substance. The world and humans exist because of evolution and natural selection so there is no God and a soul that returns to him after death. He argued that the soul is “dangerous to human endeavour”. As only the body exists, the only thing left after our life has ended is genes and memes. Dawkins explained that there is no need to argue that there is a relationship between mind and body as body is the only thing that exists. The mind is a property of the body so it is only one substance. This therefore argues against this claim that the relationship cannot be explained as Dawkins believes that he has explained that the body doesn’t interact with something which does not exist.