--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > http://www.sbinstitute.com/matofgaps.pdf > > Virtually all cognitive scientists today assume that consciousness > and all subjectively experienced mental processes are functions of > the brain, and are therefore emergent properties or functions of > matter. This is the mainstream scientific view of consciousness, and > those who reject this hypothesis are commonly viewed by many > scientists as being in the grip of a metaphysical bias or religious > faith. > > To evaluate this scientific perspective, let's first review some > simple, uncontested facts: Scientists have (1) no consensual > definition of consciousness, (2) no means of measuring it or its > neural correlates, and (3) an incomplete knowledge of the necessary > and sufficient causes of consciousness. The fact that no state of > consciousness in fact, no subjectively experienced mental > phenomenon of any kind is detectable using the instruments of > science means that, strictly speaking, there is no scientific, > empirical evidence for the existence of consciousness or the mind. > The only experiential evidence we have for the existence of mental > phenomena consists of reports based on first-person, introspective > observations of one's own mental states. But such first-person > accounts are not objective, they are not subject to third-person > corroboration, and they are generally presented by people with no > formal training in observing or reporting on their own mental > processes. Yet without such anecdotal evidence for the existence of > mental phenomena, scientists would have no knowledge of the mental > correlates of the neural and behavioral processes that they study > with such precision and sophistication. In other words, the whole > edifice of scientific knowledge of mental processes that arise in > dependence upon brain functions is based on evidence that is > anecdotal and unscientific. > Yes- plenty of subjective evidence, but no matter how much evidence, it never establishes proof. More like the brain is a very sensitive amplifier of consciousness, with dynamic filters that allow it to interpret consciousness according to the orientation of the senses, both inward and outward.
The brain's amplified, dynamically filtered interpretation of consciousness is watched by the self, and as it moves through time and space, becomes the mind. So any measure of the brain can only prove that the mind is created out of consciousness, and can be measured in different states of consciousness, but the states of consciousness themselves can never be proven by these measurements of the brain.
