Nature of the Mind-Body relationship

All I can say about this folks, is that I'm again mixing study and pleasure. However, be careful how you view these ideas - you may realize too late that your previous ideals are contradictory. I can't offer a full range of the alternatives here right now - but I'll be writting an essay on this on Friday, and hope to have most of teh alternatives covered by then!



Ok - you got Two major theories to choose from in teh begining - then you can notpick over finer details. Choice is; Dualism or Monism.
Dualism:

• The nature of conscious intelligence is non-physical. The mental and pysical are two distinct things/spheres of events. (Brain and Mind)
• Mental illness may not be just a physical problem and Psychology may be useful in treating preventing these types of problems.
• Two broad categories (Containing sub categories) Property Dualism and Substance Dualism.

Monism:

• Mental and physical things are not two things to be related or explained – there is only one thing,/sphere of events (Brain)
• If you think that the mind is purely physical, mental illness must be a physical problem with the brain and Psychology can be considered useless, as messing with the mind cannot have any effect on the body(brain).
• Two Broad Categories (Including sub categories) Idealism and Materialism.

An argument for Dualism (Which is kinda controversial to how I like to think of thigns, because I'm not convinced these things exist, but if they did - it would be the ebst way to explain them.)

Argument from Parapsychological Phenomena

1. Telepathy, precognition, telekinesis, clairvoyance are facts which cannot be explained by normal scientific theories
2. All of these theories are easily explained by dualism.
3. Therefore, dualism is true

For those advocates of Ockhams Razor - is this simple enough for you? However - I don't like it because it is of a similar structure to the; we can't explain it, therefore God created it type of arguments.

Today, we are going to have a lesson on Property Dualism!

1. Mind and body are NOT 2 different things
2. The brain is a thing of substance.
3. The brain has non-physical properties. (represent Mind)

Property Dualism Argument (Searle Minds, Brains, Ch 1.)

1. Mental phenomena are caused by brain processes.
2. Mental phenomena are just features of the brain.
3. Just as the solidity of a table is caused by an arrangement of atomic particles, and is a feature of the table (not of the particles), so too is the mind both caused by, and a feature of, the brain.
4. Hence mental states have two levels of description: a higher level in mental terms, and a lower level in physiological terms.

Why do I like Property Dualism? because I don't like substance Dualism (Mind and Brain are 2 seperate things). Why don't I like Substance Dualism? Because of two reasons:

1. The Problem of Interaction; the Mind and Body clearly interact. If mind and body are radically distinct things, how do they interact? Obvious solution: Mind and body interact like a pilot and a ship - this is the Property Dualism view.
2. It lends itself too much towards religion. Due to this one of the major arguments for substane Dualism and the problem of interaction is that God is the connection between mind and body and he controls our bodies via our minds in a type of parrallel universe. If this was the case God is responsible for all our physical actions, and we have no free will etc. I just don't like that idea, besides, its foundation is that God exists and that has hardly been established without controversy.

However, Property Dualism is far from being my ideal idea of my mind. It still raises issues of freewill, and does not as easily explain teh quirks of the mind and consciousness. It addresses the issues materialism (Only the brain exists) and neuroscience raise better then Substance dualism, but still not satisfactorily.

More on this later. I'm going to bed. Goodnight. When you dream tonight, wonder where your dreams are coming from. Wonder where they'll take you. Wonder if you've been there before. Wonder if your wondering is just in your dreams, orif your dreams are actually you wondering inyour sleep? Do you wonder if I'mjust saying this tomake this blog seem mysticaly and intelligent?

St Anselms Argument for Existence of God

This is revision people! This is one of tme msot famous A priori arguments for the existence of God - please comment.

St Anselm’s Ontological Argument: (A priori,)

1. God is something which nothing greater can be conceived (Read possible)
2. Even the fool understands that if God exists, he would be something which nothing greater can be conceived.
3. It is one thing for something to exist in our understanding, and another thing for us to understand that it exists in reality. (Eg. A painters idea of his painting exists in his understanding, but it is not until it is painted that he understands that it exists in reality.)
4. Something that exists in reality is greater then that which exists in our mind/understanding.
5. ‘That which nothing greater can be conceived’ cannot exist only in the fools understanding, because if it can be conceived of only in our understanding, it cannot be conceived to exist in reality, which is greater.
6. Therefore ‘that which nothing greater can be conceived’, God, undoubtedly exists in relation to our understanding and in reality.

Major Criticisms:

Gaunilo: Substitute 'the greatest island' for 'God' and you can deduce a false conclusion.

Anselms response: The argument only works for 'God' as god is the only thing we can really understand in our hearts (Conceive) as being 'that which nothing greater can be conceived'

Kants:

1. Anselm treats existence as a property and tehn proceeds to conclude that God has this property.
2. To say God exists does not atttribute a property of existence to God
3. To say that God exists is only to say that the concept of God has an instantation in the actual world; that there exists at least one thing which matches our concept of God.

Damians comment: This is an interesting argument, but I think Kant is correct, and Gaunilo points out how absurd it is - in that it only works for the definition of God, and is hence logically invalid, but still seems to logically valid. However, a key factor in all of tehse types of arguments is that God is defined as 'that which nothing greater can be conceived' and in reality, this could be anything. God could be the universe (If it is infinite) God could be so great we cannot actually conceive of him - the argument doesn't actually say what god is, rather what God is not, and it certainly provides no support to St Anselms Christian God.

Ice Hockey!

PB150119
Originally uploaded by Nomad Odyssey.

Alvin managed to pickup some free tickets to a Regina V's Vancouver Ice Hockey game, so despite my looming deadlines, I decided to head off in teh -25 weather to see the game!

Regina Lost by 1 goal and if they had of played the whole game like they played the last ten minutes, they would have won. Not that I minded, but they seemed to spend too much time going for the man rather then the puck.

Hah - I can't skate and I'm still a critic!

Edmonton Pics & More....

Here is a small selection of pics from the trip to Edmonton - the little blonde kid is Carter - Darcy's Son and Brittanys cousin. He's a cheeky bugger but funny enough - he got a hold of my camera and he went around most of the night taking photo's of Brittanys bum!

Carter posing for the Camera - Wish i had a shot of him wearing my black hat!

Magda and her meatballs at IKEA.

Sunset on the way to Edmonton.

Whithams or Whitams? Where are you?

Gosh! I have a dead link on my site!? Its Whithams Coffee, and I can't find its home anywhere?

Heath? Where has Whitams gone? Or is it Whithams? it doens't amtter it still doesn't exist. Did Lance Insult Google one day - because you guys just don't show up anymore! Anyway, it was itneresting because this was what I found when i searched for Whithams Coffee:

Striaght from the Vogue Discussion board:

emmysydney (19yr old model wannabe)

bathers is nice, but expensive.
for northern beaches - there are a couple of lovely ones in dee why.
but, i had the best cooked breakfast i've ever eaten the other day, it's in waverton but worth the train ride - whithams coffee.
three or four eggs scrambled (and divine) a pile of bacon (seriously, lots) two very thick pieces of yummy white toast with loads of butter and two tomatoes! top with one of the best coffees in sydney (no joke!) and there you go - all for $10.50 including latte.
not bad hey
gee, they should employ me for marketing or something...

Heath must have been working that day :P.

Mothers Finest

Just like to give you a sneek peak of how cool our frisbee team is by showing you our team logo that should be, as of this moment, getting ironed onto our very sexy white wife basher/trucky singlets and will eventually be complete with nicknames as well!

Edmonton (Alberta!)

Well, I finally got out of Saskatchewan! (Although i'm still not sure how to spell it!)

It was a great trip, taking advantage of the remembrance day long weekend and skipping a few classes on thursday, we arrived late thursday night and didn't do much at all. Friday we cruised around Leduc where we were staying at Brittanys Uncle Darcy's. Highlight of the day was when Magda spotted IKEA and nearly jumped through the roof of the car - made everybodies day by how excited she was!

IKEA is not like at home - not like I remember anyway!? They are more like a massive department store where they cover everythign from linen and towels to knifes, forks, bedroom suites, anythign to with the house or home or Swedish food! They even had a garden section! Anyway - Magda bought some Swedish meatballs so I'll make sure I'm invited when she cooks them! Darren (Brittanys dad) tried some at teh IKEA restaurant but not sure he liked them too much!

Anyway - Friday night was a big one - I'd heard on teh grapevine that Darren liked tequila, so i bought him and his brother a bottle of it, but it turns out Darcy doesn't drink! Anyway - Darren was in bed gigling like a baby for the camera by 9:30pm and teh rest of us carried on! Good night all in all except for the game of pool that almost got us in a fight!

Saturday was supposed to be the night out on the town, but we didn't get far, not that it mattered! Brittany caught up with an old friend for a while and we hit the local again after a long day at the West Edmonton mall

That place was amazing - they have an amusement park in the mall, not to mention about 2 laser challenge games, a go-kart track, and 3 odd minigolf places, an aquatic centre, shiwreck and aqua boats you can squirt other people with! Something for the boys and of course shopping for the girls! It was a good day and Darren had obviously recovered enough to collect $11 in the minigolf!

We made the trip home Sunday before thigns got nasty with the weather - couple of very cold days, but i think I'm adjusting because -25 doesn't seem that cold! uni is covered in snow and i'm just itching to go snowboarding - Got to go skating on Wednesday night in yellowgrass, and even managed to hit a puck around!

Pictures to come and details of the Hockey game Alvin got me free Tix's to last night, including the -25 walk to the bus-stop!

Profile: Magdalena

Its profile time again! This time its Magdalena "Thumper" Petterson. Thanks Brittany for the nickname!

Hometown: Finspång. Nationality: Swedish
Favourite Colour: Green and Gold
Role Model: Margaretha (Her Mum)
Quote: "You have to love yourself to love somebody else."
Languages: Swedish, English, Sign-Language.
Life Ambition: To determine if Love is Cognitive, Jamesian, Darwinian or Social Constructivism.

Infamous For:

• 'Your Momma' Jokes - (Why aren't you Mothers Finest Mascot?)
• Alergies (Peanut, onion, lactose, cat... the list is endless)
• Braids
• Non-stop gigling once drunk
• Frequenting the Rainbow Club
• Man-Wiches (Its a big sandwich ok! Ingredients: Fried Egg, Grilled Cheese, Lettuce, Tomato, Cucumber, Philedelphia cheese & Occasionly turkey/ham or bacon etc)
• Loving Ikea
• The Advanced Rabbit
• Yelling "This is Swedish" whenever Abba, Roxette or any Swedish artist is played.
• "Annie, I don't want to meet your mum, I jsut want Bang Bang Bang." (Its a song! Sheesh!)

----------------------------EDITED 17/11/2005-------------------

Also Infamous for:

• Giraffes
• Popcorn
• Getting drunk at thanksgiving at the Hockley Household and twice stumbling into the wrong bedroom and trying to sleep with Darren on the way to her own room. Apparently unsurprisingly Darren didn't wake up once!
• Being a munchkin!

Halloween!

Well, I'm slowly catching up - Since I have been in hiding we haven't been upto much anyway, but I guess it was recquired that we have a bit of a bash on Halloween! So we all got dressed up, had a bit to drink then... I lost everybody - they just all dissapeared! Scary stuff for Halloween! I'm pretty sure they were snaffled by the big scary monster that lives down stairs called the Crazy Owl! (Above L-R: Reid 'White Trash', Magda 'Hoola Girl', YT 'Pirate', Cole 'Hitler/Old Jazz man', Alex, 'Fairy'.)

Can't help but give this guy some credit - Reid Your a legend.

Its a new month - Its new photo time!

Yes I have updated the pics on FlickR and chewed up half my bandwidth already! I will do as Nick says one day!

Anyway - check out the awesome pics of the Hoar frost we had - the tree's were frozen! I love my camera - tried to take photos of snow falling though it for some uknown reason it has trouble with littel white specks against a million other little white specks.

From Affable Aussie Gentleman with 3 lovely ladies...

Will1
Originally uploaded by Nomad Odyssey.

Check out these pics I just scanned in - some of my favourite pics from the time in UK. Will mate, looks like you enjoyed the break!

.... To Aussie Larrikin with 3 Cheeky Sheilas!

Will2
Originally uploaded by Nomad Odyssey.

Hiding has been extended until 8th November.

Hi Guys,

I got an extension for my assignment and should be doing it right now, rather then posting this, but I have a brain freeze anyway. (Anybody know anything about AASB 120 Accounting for Government Grants and Discolusre of Government Assistance and its relation to the old SAC 4 or new Conceptual Framework, especially in regards to revenue recognition criteria? Email me for chrisake!)

Anyway - News from Home:

• Mum and Dad are home from the UK
• Nan sounded real good on the phone
• There have been problems with the bookkeeping in Sydney
• My room is vacant at the Clan & hence I'm offering half rent to anybody who wants to move into a fully furnsihed room until Mid-January. (Thats $56 a week rent for prime Roseville estate people - catch is you have to have a reference from somebody I know)
• Demelza is apparently going to Darwin?
• It was Leigh Hodgsons 22nd on the 31st october (Happy B'day Leigh!)
• Milly had her Eleventieth at the Clan! See Pics below.
  

News from Canada:

• I got the highest mark I've ever gotten on a midterm (91.5% on logic - No idea why my sister can't understand my arguments - they are clearly logical) Go figure since I've been doing all that partying?
• Open Universities suck so much they have to reissue our first assignments (Which I failed! Yay 2nd Chance!) because they posted misleading information. (Assignment was due week 3 but was based on week 5 material!?)
• Open Universities suck so much because I have this bitch of an assignment due on Monday.
• Humanities classes have no point or objective other then to be entertaining. Although its good the lecturer is an Anti-Bush campaigner and is not afraid to compare him to totalatarian dictators similar to those in Margaret Atwoods 'The handmaids tale.'
• Their is not a single expresso coffee machine in Regina (Or probably Saskatchewan.) They are all instant push button things and they dont know how to do the milk like Heath does. ie. The coffee situation is making me very very nervous. Its a crime. Terrible. I haven't had a proper (read expresso machine coffee with non-frothy milk) coffee since I left Australia!
• Philosophy Class is Awesome! Expect more posts on that soon!
• Procrastination occurs as much in foreign countries as it does your home country, probably more because you have more interesting things to do!