From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!torn!utgpu!pindor Wed Oct 14 14:58:22 EDT 1992
Article 7185 of comp.ai.philosophy:
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Path: newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!torn!utgpu!pindor
>From: pindor@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca (Andrzej Pindor)
Subject: Re: Brain and Mind (was: Logic and God)
Message-ID: <BvvGDF.861@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca>
Organization: UTCS Public Access
References: <BvpMGo.KLy@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca> <1992Oct6.204155.13168@meteor.wisc.edu> <1992Oct8.230422.5045@hilbert.cyprs.rain.com> <1992Oct9.040228.2117@meteor.wisc.edu>
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 20:46:27 GMT

In article <1992Oct9.040228.2117@meteor.wisc.edu> tobis@meteor.wisc.edu (Michael Tobis) writes:
...........
>of birth and death. My claim is not that consciousness is independent of
>brain function. It is only that brain function is insufficient to produce
                                                ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>consciousness by virtue of any known or plausible objectively verifiable
>physical phenomenon. Similarly, your examples of the fascinating qualia
>that result from various brain injuries miss the point. Clearly the brain
>has something to do with it. My point is that we are still utterly
>mystified as to what that might be.
>
This is a very strong and totally unsupported statement. Yes, we have no
idea how known physical phenomena may give rise to consciousness, but there
is a long way from there to stating that they are insufficient. Our ignorance
does not make them insufficient. It is more plausible to assume our ignorance
of how known physical laws combine in such a complex system (there is plenty
of evidence of similiar situations in other fields, even less complex) then 
invent mysterious, ethereal phenomena for which there is NO evidence.
>
>mt

Andrzej Pindor
-- 
Andrzej Pindor
University of Toronto
Computing Services
pindor@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca


