Re: [asa] Sense and nonsense

It is tempting to assume that concepts are non physical and that
consciousness etc are nonphysical and yet such a position seems often
contradicted by the scientific evidence. Yet, Alexianian is right that
our ignorance in these matters provides ID with a chance 'to be true'.
To argue that physicalism is truly nonsensical is nonsensical given
our ignorance, to argue that physicalism is the metaphysics underlying
Darwinism is an even worse argument.

I do understand that the latest ID arguments are that information,
altruism etc are all non physical concepts because they do not have
any mass associated with them. The question remains; Can information
and other non physical concepts be reduced to natural laws? We know
that stimulating the brain can induce sensations in people, suggesting
that at least some concepts can be reduced to a simple stimulation of
the brain. Other concepts such as self, consciousness etc may be
harder to describe yet given the evidence that indeed concepts such as
altruism may be explained in terms of natural processes, it seems too
early to state that physicalism is wrong.

In my research I ran across the following statement, suggesting that I
am not the only one arguing that concepts can evolve :-)

" Concepts of pain have continued to evolve, ascribing a greater role
to the brain."

Evolution of pain concepts
Author: Melzack R.
Source: Pathophysiology, Volume 5, Supplement 1, June 1998 , pp. 197-197

On 6/21/07, Alexanian, Moorad <alexanian@uncw.edu> wrote:
> The subject matter of science is the physical aspect of Nature. Metaphysics comes in many flavors. Physicalism claims that all that exists is physical. However, this is nonsense since the person who makes such claims is not purely physical himself/herself. The latter is so since the human mind must create nonphysical concepts to describe the whole of reality, including Nature itself. In addition, his consciousness, self, and rationality are also nonphysical. It may also be that all living beings have physical and nonphysical aspects. Therefore, ID has a chance to be true; however, physicalism is truly nonsensical. The metaphysics underlying Darwinism is physicalism.

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Received on Thu Jun 21 11:19:12 2007