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From: ccb8m@opal.cs.Virginia.EDU (Charles C. Bundy)
Subject: Re: Brain and Body aspects of same thing.  Mind and Matter defined in more basic terms.
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References: <4cu3ql$mok@aladdin.iii.org.tw> <DL0uEw.C6t@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> <940817$173109$8788jelemold@ozemail.com.au>
Date: Thu, 18 Jan 1996 15:34:39 GMT
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Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu comp.ai.philosophy:36782 comp.ai:36063 comp.ai.alife:4941

In article <940817$173109$8788jelemold@ozemail.com.au> Andrew and Kylie <jelemold@ozemail.com.au> writes:
>lug@eden.com (Lug) wrote:
> >
> >Please reread the paragraph.  He distinctly said that "TO ME, i am the
> >same person, because TO ME, nothing has changed" [my emphasis].  He never
> >said that in reality outside his perception nothing had changed.  He
> >simply said that insofar as his human perception would allow, he sensed
> >no change.  And perception, my friend, does equal reality.  At least for
> >you and me it does. 
> >
>
>Secondly, it would seem that we as organisms and people are changing every day.
>We change in mind (new ideas, casting out or reshaping old ideas), and we
>change in body (old cells dying and being replaced, hair growing, etc) and yet
>most of "us" feel that the "I" hasn't changed, we are still we.

Good point, no great point!  Actually though if asked I usually repond
with "Yes I have changed quite a bit since my high school days"  I don't
say "No I'm the same callow youth as I was then". 

>
>Thirdly, if "perception does equal reality" then what of those war casualities
>that lost an arm or leg and felt phantom pains (doc my leg hurts something
>terrible - it should it's gone ;). These phatom pains continued even after the
>patient was shown the missing leg or arm. These pains would suggest that
>perception does not always equate with reality.

Another great point!  Another example would be the foveated view.  
We only "see" about 10% of our visual field, the rest is perceived.  
People with retina damage "see" a fully populated chess board, even 
when pieces are missing.  Thus perception == reality seems to be on
tenuous ground except for "personal" reality.  And how important is
personal reality?  Not very; Just because I don't "know" I'm
dead doesn't make me "alive" in a personal sense.  Indeed there is so
much I will never "know".  Does that mean the antithesis of what I
don't know is somehow personal reality "knowledge"?

Again we go back to wishes, Dorthy and Oz.

Charles
ccb8m@virginia.edu
>
>just a thought, 
>
>Andy >:)>
>
>email:  jelemold@ozemail.com.au
>phone:  +61 02 569 2251


