A THEORY OF INTELLIGENCE Part Two (Identity)

by David Turell , Wednesday, July 04, 2018, 17:51 (2121 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: What this leaves out is my thought that 'expression of developing concept' achieves the necessary level of complexity because of the available complexity of the brains networks with which to refine the thought.

dhw: If the soul does the thinking, how does the brain refine the thought? The brain provides the information in an ongoing process as the soul instructs it to give material expression to the thought. See below.

The brain does not refine thought. The soul does it using the complex networks of the brain

DAVID: What you refuse to see is that complex thought initiated by the soul must use complex brain networks to refine and complete the thought. The networks are passive recipients, but contribute much more than 'receive thought and give them material expression' which is all you accept.

dhw: I accept that the dualist’s soul uses the brain to provide information and to carry out the soul’s instructions by materially expressing/implementing those thoughts in an ongoing process, during which more and more information will be provided until the thought is refined and completed. The soul does the thinking, and the brain provides ongoing information and material expression/implementation. Would you now please tell us at last what “much more” the brain contributes, especially bearing in mind your very own statement that the soul “drives the initiation of the thought and uses the brain networks to complete it. The brain does not initiate or contribute.”

To repeat: the brain supplies complex networks for the soul to use in refining and completing thought. The networks allow for collating all the various factors that will contribute to a final conclusion, refining the thought and expressing it. Complexity of network is required for increased complexity of concept.

DAVID’s comment (on parrots): this illustrates my point. What the animal soul is capable of accomplishing in coordinating activity definitely depends on the networks available.

dhw: The article makes no mention of the parrot’s soul! Can’t you see that this is a MATERIALIST view of intelligence?

DAVID’s comment (on mice): More evidence of available network usage. This is a study on the material brain networks, but what is to understood is the immaterial animal conscious soul is hidden in the background running the show.

dhw: It is not understood at all. All the emphasis is on the material workings of the brain.
Your final example (concerning the human brain), however, is much more complex and relevant to our discussion:

QUOTE: [The team] has discovered how the brain dynamically handles cognitive tasks while it also is engaged in internal mental processes.

dhw: This seems to suggest a materialist view, very much along the lines of the materialist section of my own “theory”, with the different brain cell communities responsible for all the processes.

QUOTE: "'We now think that a whole set of internal, or hidden, brain states can influence how you process tasks. Here, we identify hidden brain states and demonstrate for the first time that they influence human cognition and decision making in profound ways."

DAVID's comment: Another example of how the soul uses brain networks.

dhw: In dualism, yes indeed, the soul uses the brain, but if there is such a thing as a soul, this article focuses on how the brain influences it – a totally different subject. It harks back to our observation that thought changes the brain (the illiterate women) and yet the brain changes thought (drugs, diseases etc.). This is part of the great dichotomy between dualism and materialism, mirrored by your own insistence that the dualist has a separate consciousness mechanism or immaterial thinking soul and yet cannot think new thoughts until it has been given a bigger brain. I have attempted to resolve this dichotomy, whereas you still don’t seem to recognize it.

I don't see a dichotomy, if one accepts the theory that an immaterial soul must use a material brain to refine thought, at the animal and the human level. Clearly a dualistic view.