The Mind-Body Problem

I'm currently studying the mind-body problem in my philosophy class, and I was wondering what you guys thought about it.

Say which one you chose and discuss.

EDIT: crap, i wanted to add a poll to this. Oh well, choose here:

Materialist
Dualist (substance, property)
Idealist
Something else
Undecided
Who cares?

The Inner Light Theory of Consciousness

"But of course, our conscious perception of an apple is nothing like photons, sound waves, or neural activity. We see an apple as red, feel it as smooth, and taste it as sweet. This is our introspective experience, because this is the representation that the subreality machine has created for us. Our unconscious mental processes fused the multitude of sensory data into the thing we recognize as an apple. Everything that we are conscious of has been created in this way. Our consciousness exists in this inner reality, not the physical world. When we are awake, the inner reality is constructed to mimic our external surroundings. When we dream, the inner reality exists on its own, without regard for anything outside of our brains. But either way, all we can consciously experience is the subreality created for us by our unconscious mental activity.
We know that our brains contain the machinery required to place our conscious activity in an Information-Limited Subreality. This is proven by our ability to dream. But is their evidence that this same machinery is also activated when we are awake? The answer is yes; experiments show that the world we are conscious of is far more than can be explained by what enters our senses. For instance, human perceive that their vision is a faithful and true representation of the world around them, much like a high-quality photograph or motion picture. We seem to see all that there is to see, from our friends around us, to the mountains in the distance. Our conscious experience is that vision provides us a complete and unbroken picture of the world.

The problem is, experiments clearly show that we cannot possibly see what we think we see. For instance, the human eye is blind in quite large areas of its field-of-view, a result of blood vessels and the optic nerve disrupting the surface of the retina. Even more dramatic, experiments show that humans are often unable to detect large-scale changes in the scenes they are viewing, a phenomenon known as change blindness. In short, much of what we seem to see does not correspond to the physical world around us, but has been created from within ourselves. This is strong evidence that at least some aspects of the "subreality machine" are active when we are awake.
But there is a far more compelling argument that the subreality machine is fully switched on whenever we are conscious. This can be shown by examining the structure of the three different realities that humans deal with. The first of these realities is the physical universe. This consists of all the things that scientists study, such as force fields, particles, distance, time, plus all the entities that can be created by combining them. This is the unfeeling and uncaring world that activates our sense organs, such things as light photons, sound waves, molecules of various chemicals, and mechanical interactions.
The second reality we must consider is that of our dreams. As we know, this reality is constructed by the unconscious activity of the brain, and has little or no correspondence to the structure of the physical universe. In fact, its characteristics are nothing like those of the physical universe. Rather, its Elements-of-reality are the entities such as qualia, mental unity, semantic thought, and free-will. This is the reality where we see an apple as red and taste it as sweet, we feel love and anger, and experience our thoughts as having meaning.

The third reality to be examined is that of our normal waking consciousness, the reality you are experiencing at this very moment. The question is, where is this third reality coming from? Is it being generated by the subreality machine, or does it correspond to the external physical universe? The answer to this could not be more clear. The reality of our waking consciousness is virtually identical to the reality of our dreams, but is totally dissimilar to that of the physical world. In other words, reality three is the same as reality two, but completely different from reality one. The conclusion is straightforward; the subreality machine within us creates not only our dreams, but all of our conscious reality. When we are awake, this inner reality is constructed to mimic our external surroundings. When we dream, this inner reality exists on its own, without regard for anything outside of ourselves. "


I am a materialist, but I think that phenomenal reality is purely illusory, and we humans cannot directly observe objective reality. We can only see the reality that our subreality machine (brain) creates for us.

On that note, I think "Consciousness is the irreducible entity a computational machine perceives itself to be, as the result of (1) an ability to observe its own high-level workings, and (2) an inability to observe its own low-level workings" and I am a determinist.

Originally Posted by Marino

The Inner Light Theory of Consciousness

I am a materialist, but I think that phenomenal reality is purely illusory, and we humans cannot directly observe objective reality. We can only see the reality that our subreality machine creates for us.

Interesting. As a materialist, how do you see identity? Do you see it as a collection of perceptions? Or are we the same being throughout our entire lives?

Property dualist, here, btw.

I think selfhood is purely illusory. I do not think that I have free will, all my decisions are unconsciously decided. If a biological machine that is not aware of its brains lower cognitive activity can be considered a "self", then yes, there is such thing as "self". Otherwise, I think dualism, selfhood and free will are just very reassuring lies.



I am also called a physicalist.

Originally Posted by Marino

I think selfhood is purely illusory. I do not think that I have free will, all my decisions are unconsciously decided. If a biological machine that is not aware of its brains lower cognitive activity can be considered a "self", then yes, there is such thing as "self". Otherwise, I think dualism, selfhood and free will are just very reassuring lies.


I am also called a physicalist.

Hmm, I was just curious because MBTI and personality theory in general do not seem to line up with this. Jungian theory is based around selfhood, but you don't seem to have a problem in studying and utilizing it. How do you reconcile this?

I don't believe in MBTI or Jungian psychology. I just think they are interesting.

Originally Posted by Marino

I don't believe in MBTI or Jungian psychology. I just think they are interesting.

Wow, you've had me fooled this whole time, then It's interesting that you've managed to help people with their struggles in the matter without actually believing it.

I realize I just kept asking you questions earlier. Sorry about that, haha. It's just interesting to see how different theories work together (or don't work together, as it were). MBTI fits happily into my little property-dualist bubble

No, please ask as many as you wish. I love being asked questions as much as I love asking them.

If I had to choose one I'd go with Dualist but overall I'd file this under "Who cares?"

I'm also a property dualist.
I also would say that free will and "selfhood" are both true by function.