Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul C. Anagnostopoulos  Oh, I agree. Now could you explain the solution offered by the ontological gambit here? Even just a glimpse of the solution?
~~ Paul |
Well, we explore the idea that mental stuff is real, conserved (like charge) and has its own laws of interaction, both with itself and also with matter. Initially you start out without any laws, so yes, you fall into the empty explanation that you recognise. However, development would not end there.
It might be that seen in this new light, many phenomena and diseases would begin to constrain the properties of mental stuff.
This seems far more productive than inventing tortuous philosophies that try to side-step the puzzle of a purely physical basis for mental life.
The whole point is that in other areas of science, it is considered perfectly reasonable to pursue several alternative at the same time - string theory AND loop-quantum gravity - whereas non-physical explanations of consciousness never seem to be considered respectable enough to explore.
David