Collarspace Discussion Forums


Home  Login  Search 

RE: OK, if the soul begins from conception, then what about identical twins?


View related threads: (in this forum | in all forums)

Logged in as: Guest
 
All Forums >> [Community Discussions] >> Dungeon of Political and Religious Discussion >> RE: OK, if the soul begins from conception, then what about identical twins? Page: <<   < prev  10 11 [12] 13 14   next >   >>
Login
Message << Older Topic   Newer Topic >>
RE: OK, if the soul begins from conception, then what a... - 3/8/2012 8:00:50 AM   
Kirata


Posts: 15477
Joined: 2/11/2006
From: USA
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: GotSteel
quote:

ORIGINAL: tweakabelle
logic and reason alone will not deliver a complete answer... if in doubt, ponder the implications of Godel’s Theorem.

quote:

Gödel's result is of course quite interesting... but it doesn't shake the foundations of the house of intellect


I can't contest your interesting reference on Godel's Theorem, because I don't know enough about it. But it makes no dent in tweakabelle's principal claim, namely, that logic and reason alone will not deliver a complete answer -- or that, at the very least, they cannot be relied upon to do so.

Prediction is central to science. Speculations that make no testable predictions are not scientific hypotheses. To arrive at an objective truth, the validity of a hypothesis must be verified by demonstrating the accuracy of its predictions. We can test the validity of our reasoning in the same way.

And it fails...
    The Emotional Oracle Effect

    Despite the range of events and prediction horizons (in terms of when the future outcome would be determined), the results across all studies consistently revealed that people with higher trust in their feelings were more likely to correctly predict the final outcome than those with lower trust in their feelings.... Regardless of the method used, participants who trusted their feelings in general or were induced to trust their feelings experimentally were more accurate in their predictions compared to participants with lower trust in their feelings and participants in a control group.

    The researchers explain their findings through a "privileged window" hypothesis. Professor Michel Pham elaborates on the hypothesis. "When we rely on our feelings, what feels 'right' or 'wrong' summarizes all the knowledge and information that we have acquired consciously and unconsciously about the world around us. It is this cumulative knowledge, which our feelings summarize for us, that allows us make better predictions. In a sense, our feelings give us access to a privileged window of knowledge and information -- a window that a more analytical form of reasoning blocks us from."
The problem with depending on logic and reason alone is, you can reason perfectly logically to a completely false conclusion. Everything depends on the validity and sufficiency of your premises. The test is whether your conclusions lead to predictions that are accurate. And even then, you may later find out that you were right for the wrong reasons.

The "foundations of the house of intellect" rest on a very long list of perfectly logical well-reasoned conclusions that were wrong.

K.


< Message edited by Kirata -- 3/8/2012 8:45:08 AM >

(in reply to GotSteel)
Profile   Post #: 221
RE: OK, if the soul begins from conception, then what a... - 3/8/2012 9:50:04 AM   
MrBukani


Posts: 1920
Joined: 4/18/2010
Status: offline
George Carlin speaks about abortion

(in reply to Kirata)
Profile   Post #: 222
RE: OK, if the soul begins from conception, then what a... - 3/8/2012 1:09:23 PM   
thompsonx


Posts: 23322
Joined: 10/1/2006
Status: offline
quote:

Is the pin metric or ASE? Could vary the number


What does ase mean?
Did you mean sae?

(in reply to Yachtie)
Profile   Post #: 223
RE: OK, if the soul begins from conception, then what a... - 3/8/2012 1:10:52 PM   
thompsonx


Posts: 23322
Joined: 10/1/2006
Status: offline
quote:

I prefer the thank yous to be expressed in US currency btw.


Are you sure you would not like something a bit more stable?

(in reply to SoftBonds)
Profile   Post #: 224
RE: OK, if the soul begins from conception, then what a... - 3/8/2012 1:11:59 PM   
thompsonx


Posts: 23322
Joined: 10/1/2006
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: Kirata


Some men drool over women with big buds, others like thick trunks, I'm more of a root man myself.



K.




Me and thee agree

(in reply to Kirata)
Profile   Post #: 225
RE: OK, if the soul begins from conception, then what a... - 3/8/2012 1:46:04 PM   
GotSteel


Posts: 5871
Joined: 2/19/2008
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: MrBukani
Religious believers, spiritual believers and non believers could agree on what words really mean.
Only then a discussion can succeed on any level.

I also think that defining terms is really helpful, I don't suppose you'd consider actually defining yours? As in, stop talking about wind and sails and karma and give an actual definition of what you think the soul is supposed to be.

(in reply to MrBukani)
Profile   Post #: 226
RE: OK, if the soul begins from conception, then what a... - 3/8/2012 2:14:33 PM   
MrBukani


Posts: 1920
Joined: 4/18/2010
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: GotSteel

quote:

ORIGINAL: MrBukani
Religious believers, spiritual believers and non believers could agree on what words really mean.
Only then a discussion can succeed on any level.

I also think that defining terms is really helpful, I don't suppose you'd consider actually defining yours? As in, stop talking about wind and sails and karma and give an actual definition of what you think the soul is supposed to be.


Ok. The soul is something we cant grasp yet, just like a thought or our subconcious. I like the word of kirata where he says it is proven people with feeling predict better then people just using logic.
I just told my family my EQ is dominant to my IQ. My family thought this was a bad thing. I think this is a good thing. Reason without feeling makes no sense to me.
This is the best I can give for now. Im just a stupid human after all.

(in reply to GotSteel)
Profile   Post #: 227
RE: OK, if the soul begins from conception, then what a... - 3/8/2012 3:22:13 PM   
tweakabelle


Posts: 7522
Joined: 10/16/2007
From: Sydney Australia
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: GotSteel


quote:

ORIGINAL: tweakabelle
In a sense, it's a bit like trying to convey the sense of music through words - a pretty difficult undertaking that will at best always fall short of the goal.


I submit that given schematics for every bit of hardware in your computer, source code for every bit of software, a textbook on precisely how the two interact and a binary printout of an mp3, you still wouldn't have a sense of that song but that doesn't mean that there's "something extra" in your computer.


Your claim manages to achieve being both correct and irrelevant. The something extra in music is not contained in the production technology - which is why some violins are fiddles and others are Stradivarius. Nor in the reproduction technology, which is why live music cannot be perfectly reproduced by any technology. Nor in the player, which is why some people can bash out a tune on a piano and others are Barenboims or Chopins. Or in the listener, which is why some people can be moved to rapture by a given piece of music and others totally unmoved.

The something extra in music is in the totality of a given human's experience of the production of a given piece of music. The kind of two dimensional reductive thinking in your claim is exactly what I am opposing here - it could be terminally inadequate in considering matters such as those being currently discussed. Humans and the human experience are not reducible to a set of technical specifications.

< Message edited by tweakabelle -- 3/8/2012 3:26:54 PM >


_____________________________



(in reply to GotSteel)
Profile   Post #: 228
RE: OK, if the soul begins from conception, then what a... - 3/8/2012 4:00:20 PM   
vincentML


Posts: 9980
Joined: 10/31/2009
Status: offline
tweakabelle, you are most welcome and thank you. I am curious as to where you will lead us. The brain/engine metaphor is meant only in the generative notion. Not mechanical in any sense of course.

Slightly amused that here you ask for evidence/argument but later you ask me to put aside standard western epistomology. But, not an issue. To the brain as initiator/originator of love: Will you not agree that if the brain cannot originate love it is only a receptor/responder? Do you wish to relegate to the brain only the capacity of reaction? That seems to be the choice that remains. If offered love cannot I not accept it, reject it, return it, spurn it, show disinterest? Do I not have choices? Mediated by past experiences and hormonal responses, perhaps, but choices nevertheless. And have we not at times felt and offered unsolicited love?

Are we denied the agency of free will in the ‘extra?’

I do not claim the brain is the sole origin. A sometimes originator, sometimes responder to the tribal brain. Is there a word for the ‘tribal brain?’ There should be one. ‘Group-think’ seems too inadequate to include memes and the dynamic social interaction.

My thinking is Dualistic only in the sense of the individual’s social interaction and with his/her internal dialogue, but certainly not in the body/mind sense. My premise is that mind is the sum total of brain function made manifest and NOT separate from the trillions of nerve synapses and electrochemical impulses, keeping aware that the brain is plastic ~ able to change or be changed.

Tweake, I will do my best to lay aside western epistemology but I cannot promise it will not lie near the surface and offer resistence inasmuch it is the only epistemology I know. However, as before, I am open to consider alternatives that you may wish to play on your music box. Regards . . . .

(in reply to tweakabelle)
Profile   Post #: 229
RE: OK, if the soul begins from conception, then what a... - 3/8/2012 4:41:03 PM   
vincentML


Posts: 9980
Joined: 10/31/2009
Status: offline
quote:

I wasn't aware that I had in any way suggested "some unknown animating force."


Allow me to remind you.

At #175 you said: "One proposed solution has been a species of dualism, but that's not the only possibility. Another is that consciousness is somehow inherent in matter, such that increasingly complex biological systems give rise to increasingly complex organizations of consciousness and experience."

At #182 you said: "Either so-called "dead matter" (matter/energy) possesses qualities beyond what we currently believe, qualities that become manifest as self-organizing aggregates evolve in complexity, or else living beings are comprised of something more than just "dead matter" which accounts for them being fundamentally different from inanimate objects or complex systems thereof."

Are you saying now that consciousness is not an animating force? Are you saying now that possessing qualities beyond what we currently believe is somehow different than saying "unknown?" Are you saying now that living things being comprised of something more than dead matter which makes them fundamentally different from inanimate objects is not synonymus with an "activating force?" If so, what are you saying?

Yup, just a friendly exchange of ideas





(in reply to Kirata)
Profile   Post #: 230
RE: OK, if the soul begins from conception, then what a... - 3/8/2012 6:39:38 PM   
Kirata


Posts: 15477
Joined: 2/11/2006
From: USA
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: vincentML
quote:

I wasn't aware that I had in any way suggested "some unknown animating force."

Allow me to remind you...

Just enumerating the options as they appear to me to be. I'll link the last one because you trimmed the quote.

1. Dualism
2. Inherent in so-called "dead matter" (matter/energy) are qualities beyond what we currently believe (e.g., consciousness)
3. Living beings are comprised of something more than just "dead matter"
4. Too, there may be other possible explanations.

Would you deduce from this that I'm "suggesting dualism"?

quote:

ORIGINAL: vincentML

Are you saying now that consciousness is not an animating force?

I'm fairly sure I never said that consciousness was a "force" of any kind.

quote:

ORIGINAL: vincentML
Are you saying now that living things being comprised of something more than dead matter which makes them fundamentally different from inanimate objects is not synonymus with an "activating force?"

Wouldn't a separate activating force fall under dualism? I think the position represented by this option is that the scope of biological systems includes qualities that make them fundamentally different from inanimate matter. If I understand tweakabelle correctly, she may be arguing this option.

quote:

ORIGINAL: vincentML

Yup, just a friendly exchange of ideas

There ya go, now you've got it.

K.


< Message edited by Kirata -- 3/8/2012 7:15:58 PM >

(in reply to vincentML)
Profile   Post #: 231
RE: OK, if the soul begins from conception, then what a... - 3/9/2012 10:18:11 AM   
vincentML


Posts: 9980
Joined: 10/31/2009
Status: offline
quote:

Would you deduce from this that I'm "suggesting dualism"?


Trying to "deduce" your position is not a game I wish to play; it is a shell game. It is either a game you play or you are not able to articulate a clear position. Both are non-productive. We shall have to wait to see what tweakabelle comes up with.

(in reply to Kirata)
Profile   Post #: 232
RE: OK, if the soul begins from conception, then what a... - 3/9/2012 11:12:50 AM   
GotSteel


Posts: 5871
Joined: 2/19/2008
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: tweakabelle
I do hope you aren't asserting the origins of (say) love, or the need to love and be loved are located in the limbic system.


quote:

ORIGINAL: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/cupids-poisoned-arrow/200906/cupid-s-poisoned-arrow-primer
Human love lives are complex. One of the underlying reasons may be that we have two conflicting genetic programs at work in our limbic system, both of which have subtle, but powerful influences on our intimate relationships. I will discuss those programs, and the tension between them, at length in other posts, but here let me clarify what I mean by some terms I will be using. I'll update this post as needed.

The limbic system, pictured above, is a very old part of the brain, which is surprisingly similar in all mammals. This explains why experiments on rats can help scientists understand how human brains function. As my husband observed, "Scientists aren't doing experiments on rats to learn how to help rats with their erections and addictions."

So why should lovers care about their brain's limbic system? Because it is the part of the brain from which our emotions and drives arise. It's where we experience the thrills of sexual arousal and orgasm (and their aftermath). The limbic system is also where we fall in (and out) of love. It operates subconsciously, recording our likes and dislikes, coloring our impressions, and judging every experience and person constantly...and instantly.

(in reply to tweakabelle)
Profile   Post #: 233
RE: OK, if the soul begins from conception, then what a... - 3/9/2012 1:30:44 PM   
Kirata


Posts: 15477
Joined: 2/11/2006
From: USA
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: vincentML

quote:

Would you deduce from this that I'm "suggesting dualism"?


Trying to "deduce" your position is not a game I wish to play; it is a shell game. It is either a game you play or you are not able to articulate a clear position. Both are non-productive. We shall have to wait to see what tweakabelle comes up with.

My position is that your explanation proposes magic, and that there has to be a different one. Sorry if I didn't make that clear. As to what that alternative explanation might be, I admit it is difficult to pin someone down who is willing to say that they don't know.

K.

(in reply to vincentML)
Profile   Post #: 234
RE: OK, if the soul begins from conception, then what a... - 3/9/2012 3:19:21 PM   
tweakabelle


Posts: 7522
Joined: 10/16/2007
From: Sydney Australia
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: GotSteel

quote:

ORIGINAL: tweakabelle
I do hope you aren't asserting the origins of (say) love, or the need to love and be loved are located in the limbic system.


quote:

ORIGINAL: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/cupids-poisoned-arrow/200906/cupid-s-poisoned-arrow-primer
Human love lives are complex. One of the underlying reasons may be that we have two conflicting genetic programs at work in our limbic system, both of which have subtle, but powerful influences on our intimate relationships. I will discuss those programs, and the tension between them, at length in other posts, but here let me clarify what I mean by some terms I will be using. I'll update this post as needed.

The limbic system, pictured above, is a very old part of the brain, which is surprisingly similar in all mammals. This explains why experiments on rats can help scientists understand how human brains function. As my husband observed, "Scientists aren't doing experiments on rats to learn how to help rats with their erections and addictions."

So why should lovers care about their brain's limbic system? Because it is the part of the brain from which our emotions and drives arise. It's where we experience the thrills of sexual arousal and orgasm (and their aftermath). The limbic system is also where we fall in (and out) of love. It operates subconsciously, recording our likes and dislikes, coloring our impressions, and judging every experience and person constantly...and instantly.


This is the second time you have found very conservative quotes that advance very contentionious claims as unproblemmatic. The first time was in relation to Godel's Theorem.

Godel showed that paradox is built into the structure of maths, that in any closed system of knowledge, one can have consistency or completeness but not both. In other words , knowledge systems will be at best partial, and subject to internal contradiction or inadequate explanation of the data. In short, we can't have a theory of everything.* Science has no claim to produce 'truth' it produces working hypotheses that some people erroneously elevate to the status of truth.
.
Now we asked to consider a claim that emotions arise in the limbic system which is based upon the contentious and unproven assumption that genetic inheritances control such things. Again highly dubious. You can run with this claim if you choose to, but until the basic assumption is proven, it will retain the status of opinion or belief - it will be an act of faith.

There are lots of other ways of arriving at this conclusion (we can't have a theory of everything) that don't rely on Godel. So unless you are prepared to claim that humans can develop an accurate, consistent and complete theory of everything, (and I have never heard anyone make that claim), then you are obliged to accept that the best logic and reason can produce is a partial system of knowledge.

AFAIK, there is nothing anyone can do about this, except change the rules of knowledge. To assert that logic and reason are the only route to a complete and consistent understanding is to make a claim that can easily be described as superstitious. Logic and reason are usually the best routes to understanding, but to assert that they are always the best and only route (which seems implied by your position) is not justified by current epistemological understandings.

* For a more complete development of this position, see Jacob Bronowoski, 'The Origins of Knowledge and Imagination' (1978)

< Message edited by tweakabelle -- 3/9/2012 3:38:57 PM >


_____________________________



(in reply to GotSteel)
Profile   Post #: 235
RE: OK, if the soul begins from conception, then what a... - 3/9/2012 3:20:14 PM   
vincentML


Posts: 9980
Joined: 10/31/2009
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: Kirata


quote:

ORIGINAL: vincentML

quote:

Would you deduce from this that I'm "suggesting dualism"?


Trying to "deduce" your position is not a game I wish to play; it is a shell game. It is either a game you play or you are not able to articulate a clear position. Both are non-productive. We shall have to wait to see what tweakabelle comes up with.

My position is that your explanation proposes magic, and that there has to be a different one. Sorry if I didn't make that clear. As to what that alternative explanation might be, I admit it is difficult to pin someone down who is willing to say that they don't know.

K.



Jeez, at least we can agree on the last comment.

Here's what I propose to you: No matter what YOUR alternative SPECULATION might be, LIFE is freakin MAGICAL!!!

And, no thank you (generic) no magician is needed waving his wand from the firmament.

This is it, lickity split, until we grow old and infirm, or if we live in a shit hole country; then, not so good.

(in reply to Kirata)
Profile   Post #: 236
RE: OK, if the soul begins from conception, then what a... - 3/9/2012 3:29:23 PM   
vincentML


Posts: 9980
Joined: 10/31/2009
Status: offline
quote:

AFAIK, there is nothing anyone can do about this, except change the rules of knowledge. To assert that logic and reason are the only route to a complete and consistent understanding is to make a claim that can easily be described as superstitious. Logic and reason are usually the best routes to understanding, but to assert that they are always the best and only route is not justified by current epistemological understandings.


But Tweak, logic and reason married to empirical research and peer review are pretty hard to beat, aren't they? They have produced a pretty marvelous revolution in the West these last 500 years. So, you imply that there are some phenomena that require other "non-western" routes. Awaiting your elaboration with interest.

(in reply to tweakabelle)
Profile   Post #: 237
RE: OK, if the soul begins from conception, then what a... - 3/9/2012 3:50:58 PM   
tweakabelle


Posts: 7522
Joined: 10/16/2007
From: Sydney Australia
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: vincentML

quote:

AFAIK, there is nothing anyone can do about this, except change the rules of knowledge. To assert that logic and reason are the only route to a complete and consistent understanding is to make a claim that can easily be described as superstitious. Logic and reason are usually the best routes to understanding, but to assert that they are always the best and only route is not justified by current epistemological understandings.


But Tweak, logic and reason married to empirical research and peer review are pretty hard to beat, aren't they? They have produced a pretty marvelous revolution in the West these last 500 years. So, you imply that there are some phenomena that require other "non-western" routes. Awaiting your elaboration with interest.


Yes. They are excellent research methodologies. My position is that doesn't mean that they are always the best and only methodologies. There are some areas where 'scientific' methodologies cannot be applied rigourously. How can any human be "objective" in relation to humans? I don't see how it's possible. And if it's impossible, how can the scientific method be practised or the "best and only" methodology? There is a school of thought that argues that the term 'human or social sciences' is oxymoronic.

Even within a scientific paradigm, it is agreed that machines cannot understand themselves. Doesn't this imply that the scientific method will not be successful in delivering a complete understanding of humans? Isn't insisting on 'science' as the only route to understanding a demand that science deliver more than it is constitutionally capable of delivering? That is to say, an exercise in futility.

< Message edited by tweakabelle -- 3/9/2012 3:55:03 PM >


_____________________________



(in reply to vincentML)
Profile   Post #: 238
RE: OK, if the soul begins from conception, then what a... - 3/9/2012 3:57:50 PM   
Kirata


Posts: 15477
Joined: 2/11/2006
From: USA
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: vincentML

And, no thank you (generic) no magician is needed waving his wand from the firmament.

You seem willing to misrepresent and ridicule anything that transgresses upon your dogmatic materialistism. Are there no depths to which you will not sink in this "friendly exchange of ideas"?

K.

(in reply to vincentML)
Profile   Post #: 239
RE: OK, if the soul begins from conception, then what a... - 3/9/2012 3:58:47 PM   
vincentML


Posts: 9980
Joined: 10/31/2009
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: tweakabelle

quote:

ORIGINAL: vincentML

quote:

AFAIK, there is nothing anyone can do about this, except change the rules of knowledge. To assert that logic and reason are the only route to a complete and consistent understanding is to make a claim that can easily be described as superstitious. Logic and reason are usually the best routes to understanding, but to assert that they are always the best and only route is not justified by current epistemological understandings.


But Tweak, logic and reason married to empirical research and peer review are pretty hard to beat, aren't they? They have produced a pretty marvelous revolution in the West these last 500 years. So, you imply that there are some phenomena that require other "non-western" routes. Awaiting your elaboration with interest.


Yes. They are excellent research methodologies. My position is that doesn't mean that they are not always the best and only methodologies. There are some areas where 'scientific' methodologies cannot be applied rigourously. How can any human be "objective" in relation to humans? I don't see how it's possible. And if it's impossible, how can the scientific method be practised or the "best and only" methodology? There is a school of thought that argues that the term 'human or social sciences' is oxymoronic.

Even within a scientific paradigm, it is agreed that machines cannot understand themselves. Doesn't this imply that the scientific method will not be successful in delivering a complete understanding of humans? Isn't insisting on 'science' as the only route to understanding a demand that science deliver more than it is constitutionally capable of delivering? That is to say, an exercise in futility.


I am not arguing your point. I did not say it was the only methodology. I am waiting to see the alternative. Seriously. I told you earlier I would do my best to remain open, and I will.

(in reply to tweakabelle)
Profile   Post #: 240
Page:   <<   < prev  10 11 [12] 13 14   next >   >>
All Forums >> [Community Discussions] >> Dungeon of Political and Religious Discussion >> RE: OK, if the soul begins from conception, then what about identical twins? Page: <<   < prev  10 11 [12] 13 14   next >   >>
Jump to:





New Messages No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages Locked w/o New Messages
 Post New Thread
 Reply to Message
 Post New Poll
 Submit Vote
 Delete My Own Post
 Delete My Own Thread
 Rate Posts




Collarchat.com © 2025
Terms of Service Privacy Policy Spam Policy

0.094