From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.ecf!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!ccu.umanitoba.ca!access.usask.ca!alberta!aunro!ukma!wupost!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!unix.cis.pitt.edu!pitt!geb Tue Nov 26 12:31:15 EST 1991
Article 1474 of comp.ai.philosophy:
Xref: newshub.ccs.yorku.ca sci.philosophy.tech:1040 comp.ai.philosophy:1474 sci.med:5780
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>From: geb@dsl.pitt.edu (gordon e. banks)
Newsgroups: sci.philosophy.tech,comp.ai.philosophy,sci.med
Subject: Re: Liver, kidneys, and brain  (was: Daniel Dennett)
Message-ID: <12463@pitt.UUCP>
Date: 21 Nov 91 18:06:49 GMT
References: <1991Nov14.223348.4076@milton.u.washington.edu> <kie1rcINN2rb@cs.utexas.edu>
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Organization: Decision Systems Laboratory, Univ. of Pittsburgh, PA.
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In article <kie1rcINN2rb@cs.utexas.edu> turpin@cs.utexas.edu (Russell Turpin) writes:
>-----
>Cross-posted to sci.med.  Irrelevent groups dropped.
>
>-----
>In article <1991Nov15.160741.5495@husc3.harvard.edu> zeleny@walsh.harvard.edu (Mikhail Zeleny) writes:
>> ... If the brain can be seen as the seat of consciousness, why
>> not the liver or the kidneys? ...
>

The simple answer is that if we take out a person's kidneys or liver,
they still are conscious, and (until they start to suffer the effects
of uremia or liver encephalopathy) mentate normally.  Not so when
we take out pieces of the brain.
-- 
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Gordon Banks  N3JXP        | "When in danger, or in doubt
geb@cadre.dsl.pitt.edu     |  Run in circles, scream and shout" --Heinlein
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