A former 40 year Atheist analyzes Atheism, without resorting to theism, deism, or fantasy. *** If You Don't Value Truth, Then What DO You Value? *** If we say that the sane can be coaxed and persuaded to rationality, and we say that rationality presupposes logic, then what can we say of those who actively reject logic? *** Atheists have an obligation to give reasons in the form of logic and evidence for rejecting Theist theories.
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Those MRI Thingies Seem To Work Fine For Liberals
Click on pic for better resolution.
16 comments:
Nats
said...
A well argued analysis with a large range of well-supported data to back-up its assertions.
Oh look at that Karl Marx shrine. And a tiny "Sense of Humor" cell? Oh, I get it, if you don't like it you have no sense of humor? Very clever.
But anyway, this is pretty much the level of thought I expect from you so keep it up, you illogical no-sense-of-humor science-hating jack-booted fascist!
Of course logic, the formal systematic study of the principles of valid inference and correct reasoning, is in the brain. No brain, no study, no mental constructs. Studying how the brain works helps.
The names are proper nouns, which, back in the old days, got capitalized. If it says, the fallacy of X, that's not a name. If it says, the X Fallacy, that's a name. You can probably find a lot of cases where I violate this.
I apologize my grammar is not actually good because English is not my native language:
The brain is actually more misterious and complex than thought. Maybe the external cortex of the brain can be evaluated by EEGs and finding the patterns of alpha, beta, gamma, and the "phi complex", to mention some of them.
The problem is, some internals of the brain are rather different and sometimes even misterious, the way the brain actually keeps information is not in a static way, but in a non-deterministic, dynamic one.
It is in the medical concept of "brain-integration Therapy" that somehow makes understand how some of the internals of the brain might produce those kind of results in the external cortex.
A massive amount of mental maps need to be done to make a pattern of the way most of our brains might work, but at the same time, most of the "useful" patterns for research come from just the response and data acquired from EEGs.
Everyone,
I sugest to look for cases where patients whose brains were partially extracted in a surgical procedure because of dead tissue or cancer or other cause, but that their cognitive abilities remained intact or almost intact.
Brain integration therapies also give a good glimpse of the research at hand.
The things is, nowadays is possible to "interpret" the response of wave patterns of the brain by probing its surface, and then "translating" those actions back to our basic sensorial inputs as something recognizable, but what is not well known at all is not that it happens, but how our brains may dinamically relocate some of the responses and the way it keeps information.
"Please explain how studying the brain helps with logic."
Well, if logic is the study of the principles of valid inference and correct reasoning then knowing how the brain reasons can help you come to better conclusions in the same way that knowing about cognitive biases can help you understand if you are afflicted with them. This could be part of what Slowmo is referring to.
Logic is a defined discipline with rules. It is independent of brains. Logic is the same whether the discipline is applied by Einstein or the Three Stooges, so long as the procedures are followed.
Mathematics is not dependent upon whose brain is thinking it. It is either valid or it is not.
The issue is not the necessity of the mind in order to think, of course; the issue is whether logic is mind dependent: it is not. So the validity of logic does not depend on knowledge of the brain, its neural connections, the blood flow during the creation of syllogisms or the analysis of arguments.
Like mathematics, the relationships exist and are discovered; they are not created out of thin air by a mind somewhere.
16 comments:
A well argued analysis with a large range of well-supported data to back-up its assertions.
Oh look at that Karl Marx shrine. And a tiny "Sense of Humor" cell? Oh, I get it, if you don't like it you have no sense of humor? Very clever.
But anyway, this is pretty much the level of thought I expect from you so keep it up, you illogical no-sense-of-humor science-hating jack-booted fascist!
:-)
WHAT? You don't approve of MRI charts? Logic is just mental constructs in the brain, ya know... So obviously ya hafta know what's in the brain.
BTW, I have a "Che is dead, get over it" Teeshirt for sale, interested? Only worn 16 weeks straight by an Occupy Pelosi Tea Partier.
Of course logic, the formal systematic study of the principles of valid inference and correct reasoning, is in the brain. No brain, no study, no mental constructs. Studying how the brain works helps.
"Studying how the brain works helps."
Please explain how studying the brain helps with logic. Start with Syllogism, please.
"Please explain how studying the brain helps with logic."
Tut tut, Stan, Phrenology is an active and growing science that explains clearly how faculties are mapped to precise organs in the brain!
I've been meaning to ask, Stan. What's with the unnecessary capitalization of some concepts and fallacies?
The names are proper nouns, which, back in the old days, got capitalized. If it says, the fallacy of X, that's not a name. If it says, the X Fallacy, that's a name. You can probably find a lot of cases where I violate this.
Rusell,
I apologize my grammar is not actually good because English is not my native language:
The brain is actually more misterious and complex than thought. Maybe the external cortex of the brain can be evaluated by EEGs and finding the patterns of alpha, beta, gamma, and the "phi complex", to mention some of them.
The problem is, some internals of the brain are rather different and sometimes even misterious, the way the brain actually keeps information is not in a static way, but in a non-deterministic, dynamic one.
It is in the medical concept of "brain-integration Therapy" that somehow makes understand how some of the internals of the brain might produce those kind of results in the external cortex.
A massive amount of mental maps need to be done to make a pattern of the way most of our brains might work, but at the same time, most of the "useful" patterns for research come from just the response and data acquired from EEGs.
Everyone,
I sugest to look for cases where patients whose brains were partially extracted in a surgical procedure because of dead tissue or cancer or other cause, but that their cognitive abilities remained intact or almost intact.
Brain integration therapies also give a good glimpse of the research at hand.
The things is, nowadays is possible to "interpret" the response of wave patterns of the brain by probing its surface, and then "translating" those actions back to our basic sensorial inputs as something recognizable, but what is not well known at all is not that it happens, but how our brains may dinamically relocate some of the responses and the way it keeps information.
Kind Regards.
"Please explain how studying the brain helps with logic."
Well, if logic is the study of the principles of valid inference and correct reasoning then knowing how the brain reasons can help you come to better conclusions in the same way that knowing about cognitive biases can help you understand if you are afflicted with them.
This could be part of what Slowmo is referring to.
Logic is a defined discipline with rules. It is independent of brains. Logic is the same whether the discipline is applied by Einstein or the Three Stooges, so long as the procedures are followed.
Mathematics is not dependent upon whose brain is thinking it. It is either valid or it is not.
Yonose,
I had attempted a bit of tongue in cheek humor, but something didn't translate clearly :) No worries on my side!
"Mathematics is not dependent upon whose brain is thinking it."
Indeed, I have a host of electronic gadgets that work on logical principles with no wetware involved.
At best, understanding the brain would help us what sectors are used in thinking about logic and math, but not how logic and math work.
I'll help you out with some extra emphasis.
"logic is the study of the principles of valid inference and correct reasoning."
You need a mind to do the studying, inferring and reasoning.
The issue is not the necessity of the mind in order to think, of course; the issue is whether logic is mind dependent: it is not. So the validity of logic does not depend on knowledge of the brain, its neural connections, the blood flow during the creation of syllogisms or the analysis of arguments.
Like mathematics, the relationships exist and are discovered; they are not created out of thin air by a mind somewhere.
"the relationships exist and are discovered"
Yo, my original quote is about the study of this relationships not this relationships.
they are not created out of thin air by a mind somewhere.
Nice of you to admit this!
Rusell,
That's a good idea for a project! lets interface a simple EEG with some Arduino boards to make a phreno-logic-o-matic, that would be awesome!! :P
Yay, phrenology to discover logic!! :P
Kind Regards!
Yonose,
Sounds like a fun project :)
Post a Comment