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Originally Posted by Paul C. Anagnostopoulos  Scientists are working hard to explain various aspects of consciousness. There are many ideas being tested, whereas I don't really see any idealist scientists testing theories of the mental. That might be because there aren't any idealist scientists. |
A matter of paradigm?
As for physicalist ideas being tested, I don't see that happening. I see correlates between mind and brain being explored and verified, but those can be interepreted in several ways.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul C. Anagnostopoulos It's not clear to me at all that they are two different things. Just because something is going on inside your head doesn't make it fundamentally different from everything else. It just seems that way. |
Fair enough. I guess it comes down to personal preference in the end. Still, for reasons outlined below, I prefer idealism.
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Originally Posted by Paul C. Anagnostopoulos I don't know where you got this from, but if it's true then our bodies shouldn't know when to exist, either. Just because time is different for different entities does not suddenly make it the case that things don't "know" when to exist. |
Well, what defines "time", as far as I can tell, is consciousness. Consciousness can only exist "now". Bodies, however, can exist whenever they like to, because time is only a meningful concept if there is a consciousness to "fixate" it at a certain place. Bodies
without consciousness are "fleeting" when it comes to time, they don't exist at a certain time. And here is the crux of the problem. If consciousness equals the brain, it doesn't make sense that it should exist "now", whereas its physical counterpart can exist at any point in time.