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[Sushan]

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[psyreporter]

Happy New Year to you as well!

I noticed your footnote of philosopher William James.

Philosopher Bertrand Russell in The Analysis of Mind cited philosopher William James to indicate that the distinction between matter and life isn't as obvious as one may assume:

"James's view is that the raw material out of which the world is built up is not of two sorts, one matter and the other mind, but that it is arranged in different patterns by its inter relations, and that some arrangements may be called mental, while others may be called physical."

...

He continues: [American realists] speak of "neutral" entities as the stuff out of which both mind and matter are constructed.
...
My own belief - for which the reasons will appear in subsequent lectures - is that William James is right in rejecting consciousness as an entity, and that the American realists are partly right, though not wholly, in considering that both mind and matter are composed of a neutral-stuff which, in isolation, is neither mental nor material.

Would you agree with that perspective on consciousness and physical reality?

[Sushan]

Happy New Year to you as well!

I noticed your footnote of philosopher William James.

Philosopher Bertrand Russell in The Analysis of Mind cited philosopher William James to indicate that the distinction between matter and life isn't as obvious as one may assume:

"James's view is that the raw material out of which the world is built up is not of two sorts, one matter and the other mind, but that it is arranged in different patterns by its inter relations, and that some arrangements may be called mental, while others may be called physical."

...

He continues: [American realists] speak of "neutral" entities as the stuff out of which both mind and matter are constructed.
...
My own belief - for which the reasons will appear in subsequent lectures - is that William James is right in rejecting consciousness as an entity, and that the American realists are partly right, though not wholly, in considering that both mind and matter are composed of a neutral-stuff which, in isolation, is neither mental nor material.

Would you agree with that perspective on consciousness and physical reality?

As far as I believe, there is no phenomenon called 'mind'. It is a result of the chemical activity of our brain. Earlier days people could not understand how people were formed and function. So they made up various theories. But with the evolution they thought of something called mind. We see how psychiatric illnesses are categorized as illnesses of mind in those days. But even such illnesses are today defined as chemical imbalances of brain. Some still remain as illnesses of mind, not because they really are, but the science has not yet developed to tell that they are not. So I believe only in the physical thins and the results of their activities, not in seperate matters or entities.