• Wayfarer
    25.6k
    The “map vs. territory” distinction isn’t what’s at issue.
    The argument from Aristotle through Russell is about the conditions of intelligibility that make any map–territory distinction possible in the first place — universals, logical form, meaning. These aren’t maps; but they’re not parts of the physical territory either. They’re what both map and territory presuppose. If you want to challenge that, you need to address the argument, not just repeat slogans.
  • 180 Proof
    16.3k
    Consider this article concerning findings on (in my words) 'the materiality of thinking' presented by a distinguished MIT researcher at a recent neuroscience conference:

    https://picower.mit.edu/news/brain-waves-analog-organization-cortex-enables-cognition-and-consciousness-mit-professor
  • Wayfarer
    25.6k
    Neuroscience tells us how the brain behaves when we think; it cannot tell us what thinking is — because the very act of interpreting neural data requires the conceptual structures (universals, logical form, mathematical norms) that the brain-waves theory is supposed to explain. You cannot use “if… then…” reasoning to argue that reasoning is nothing but brain waves, because the argument presupposes the very universality that oscillations cannot provide. You can't see those mental operations 'from the outside', so to speak, as you're already drawing on them to conduct the research that the findings rely on. 'The eye cannot see itself'.
  • 180 Proof
    16.3k
    Neuroscience tells us how the brain behaves when we think; it cannot tell us what thinking isWayfarer
    – and neither can idealism, subjectivism, spiritualism nor any other woo.
  • Wayfarer
    25.6k
    C’mon 180. Bertrand Russell and Lloyd Gerson. Middle-of-the-road classical philosophy.
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