

BOOKS, GRAPHICS, PAPERS IN A NUTSHELL AUTHOR FAQS ‘N CRITIQUES CLOSET, (ODDS ‘N ENDS) LINKS CONTACT
Without
a real mind, there is no basis for a real ethics. If you were just a machine, it would not
really matter whether I caused you pain or caused you happiness. It would only be a matter of which
noises you subsequently made: i.e. “pain
noises” or “happy noises”! If I were
able, it would not matter whether I cut Dennett’s leg off or was able to award
him the Nobel Prize! True, the mechanism
whose name “he” bears might cause me danger, but since there would be no “me”
either, that fact would be essentially irrelevant in any fundamental, (either
ethical or ontological), sense.
At least one part of
the answer to the mind-body problem must pass as rigorous science –it must be science, and it must be both
mathematical and logical. The answer I
will present here will be revolutionary, and it is new. See the link above, (IN A NUTSHELL), for a brief synopsis. The greatest problem however, will be in your
understanding of it. To quote Immanuel
Kant:
"If in a new science which is wholly isolated
and unique in its kind, we started with the prejudice that we can judge of
things by means of alleged knowledge previously acquired -though this is
precisely what has first to be called in question -we should only fancy we saw
everywhere what we had already known, because the expressions have a similar
sound. But everything would appear
utterly metamorphosed, senseless, and unintelligible, because we should have as
a foundation our own thoughts, made by long habit a second nature, instead of
the author's." (Kant, Prolegomena,
p.10) Otherwise stated, the whole of the
answer must be understood “heterophenomenologically”, to use Dennett’s
term. It is so different that I think the only way to understand it is in its own terms!
Science drives the ongoing debate. Its conclusions are what your children and
your grandchildren are going to have to live with. Here is an entirely new perspective on the
ancient problem which gives us a hope for a better world. ---------------------------- JI