"Elf M. Sternberg" wrote:
georgedance@hotmail.com (George Dance) writes:
And no, I'm not an epiphenomenalist, any more than Daniel
Dennett, who probably explains my views better than anyone else I've
ever read, is. Consciousness is not non-causitive; those who hold that
position seem to have the position that consciousness is "outside" the
normal flow of time and non-systemic. Consciousness is the normal
outcome of brains ticking over.
And this means that, wait for it, consciousness or mental things are NOT
causitive and are meaningless -- only the stimuli and neuron firings
have meaning. At best, mental things are one result of neuron firings,
and cannot impact the process one whit. And since brains tick over
deterministically, it's all deterministic. And the mental, then, has no
bearing on what's going on, and so it isn't causitive at all.
.
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