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From: crm@duke.UUCP (Charles R. Martin)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: More on materialism
Message-ID: <4296@duke.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 4-May-84 10:57:21 EDT
Article-I.D.: duke.4296
Posted: Fri May  4 10:57:21 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 5-May-84 01:29:08 EDT
References: <4295@duke.UUCP>
Organization: Duke University
Lines: 17


The question of whether 'mind' exists seperate from matter presupposes
that there is such a thing as 'mind' -- no wait, I'm not getting cynical
on you!

Our consciousness itself seems (to me and to Buddhist/Hindu philosophies)
to be a consequence of the way that we deal with information in the
day-to-day world, i.e. by semantic symbol systems.  It is, in this 
view, a manifestation of the fact that we ordinarily must organize
our thoughts around words, which are then used to encode information
which we use by agreement.  However, the fact that we can 'talk to
ourselves' is not sufficient reason to believe that we are in some
sense manifesting a thing called 'mind', which is separate from the
normal physical reality.

(Re: the Buddhist reference above: this is one interpretation of the
doctrine of an-atman.  Take it seriously at your own risk.)