Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Consciousness, the brain & materialism



In the eyes of some materialists
 consciousness is an illusion.
But if consciousness is an illusion
 does that mean everything in consciousness
  is also an illusion?

For example, the world exists within consciousness,
 therefore if consciousness is an illusion
  then so is the world?

If consciousness is an illusion
  but the body is real
   (although we only know it exists
   because it appears in consciousness)
 then does that means thoughts and emotions are also illusions?

If we place primary (or solitary) focus on the physical
  then we could say all subjective experience is illusion.
Thoughts, feelings, dreams, visualizations...
  all illusions.
Even though it is these things that give rise to behaviors
  that impact on the material world.

For example, a man visualizes a building in his mind.
Nowhere does this building exist in the physical world
 only in the man's mind.
He goes about designing this building and then gives this design
  to builders who build according to the design.
Now we have a physical building resembling the visualization
 the man held in his mind.

So which is "more" real:
 the visualization or the physical building?

Which of the two can be studied by science:
 the visual image in the man's head
or the building made out of wood, steel and hempcrete?

A scientist does an MRI of the mans's head while we is visualizing the building.
Does the scientist see the building?
The scientists sees a representation of the man's brain
 with certain area showing more activity than others.
These areas showing greatest activity are said to relate
  to the man's visual capacity.
Does this mean these areas of activity are the building?

How does the man's consciousness know to interpret these areas of brain activity
 as a building and not as something else?

Are we even close to answering that question?

Do we really know diddly about how the brain and consciousness relate?

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