Simon Conway Morris on animal intelligence (Introduction)

by David Turell , Sunday, January 22, 2017, 15:25 (2654 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: The brain develops as the baby begins to have experiences. I view the arrangement between two entities, a material brain and an immaterial consciousness mechanism, which learn to work together.

dhw: Yes of course they work together. And according to your dualism, it is consciousness that controls the brain, so there is absolutely no logic to your argument that the brain gives rise to consciousness or enhanced consciousness. That is materialism. I flounder because I do not know which theory is true. You flounder because your “strange form of dualism” is totally illogical.

As a baby I am a blank slate. My brain has to develop for 20 years or so to have a complete material form. My dualism does not have consciousness controlling the brain. As I develop I assume control of the consciousness mechanism through experience in thought and the brain's plasticity to respond to how I use it. I look at the process as having three parts: the brain, consciousness, and me. You keep skipping the part where I become 'me' and I use my consciousness to develop my thoughts and concepts.

My personally shaped consciousness, me, is the entity that survives me the body envelop.