Keith Ward - What's the Stuff of Mind and Brain?

Mind stuff consists of perceptions, cognitions, emotions. Brain stuff consists of electrical sparks and circuits and chemical concentrations and flows. These are not similar categories. How do the two relate? How does brain stuff generate mind stuff? What are the new theories of brain and mind? What are the challenges?

Keith Ward is a British philosopher, theologian, pastor, and scholar. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and an ordained priest of the Church of England.

Closer To Truth, hosted by Robert Lawrence Kuhn and directed by Peter Getzels, presents the world’s greatest thinkers exploring humanity’s deepest questions. Discover fundamental issues of existence. Engage new and diverse ways of thinking. Appreciate intense debates. Share your own opinions. Seek your own answers.

[Etheralstew]

I get annoyed with people who just can't say "I don't know". This guy said absolutely nothing about the issue and just couldn't say "I don't know" when pushed. Meanwhile, yes the brain is all there is for consciousness, of course. This guy wants something outside the brain but that just doesn't track with... anything.

[d.lav.]

Oh dear. A good example of how confused some people end up on the matter of consciousness. Once you lose sight of the simple fact that it is a biological process, like digestion say, then it becomes a rather unshackled concept.

[SRAVALM]

This video is a great example of Wisdom, and then empirical intelligence.
If you went to public school, which isn't education, but is conditioning, it's all about memorization and empirical intelligence. The school might even have you believe that you're not smart if you don't ace your test, and this isn't only far fro the truth, but is most certainly an evil the government has part taken in.
It doesn't matter if you can do speed math or memorize all of wikipedia – sure, it might help you become a ceo or politician. Wisdom is the most important.

[craigswanson]

It’s so hard to believe that anyone can be considered legitimate, and rewarded handsomely with success and prestige, who sees a magical spirit realm causing consciousness.

[williamburts]

You could say consciousness is spiritual because it is beyond the change and decay that time imposes on material phenomena. Our body, mind, senses, intelligence lose their vitality as time goes on but our consciousness being an eternal " in the now " existence experiences no change or deterioration of its existence. Thus, we can say consciousness is spiritual because it seems to be aloof from material phenomena.

[kitstamat]

It turns out that Robert is not a philosopher. He defines matter as what is real, and if you define matter that way you have declared materialism to be true in advance and then you can be nothing but a materialist. What is real is the big question - so it is for philosophers. Scientists are given a materialistic answer to that question in advance as a working framework, therefore they cannot even ask such a question.

[linkin]

We’re getting further from the truth with this one I’m afraid ..

[jjharvathh]

Many comments here have embedded assumptions of materialism, as do all the questions that Robert is asking Keith. As usual, I have to step in here and clarify things for everyone. Conscious experiences are nonphysical phenomena. That is, these phenomena can not be measured, weighed, detected, located in space, etc., as physical things can be. This is really the end of the story, until we are able to find a connection between conscious experience and the physical. This is the so called hard problem of consciousness. We now have no solution, that is, we have found no connection. We may never solve that, because the solution may not be there in the form a materialist is expecting. Some say, of course it is there, the connection must be there, we just have not found it yet, but that is only an assumption. Assuming materialism might be a very primitve and incorrect approach, similar to a cave man who is certain that the radio/TV in front of him, is the sole source of the voices, the music, and the images that he is hearing and seeing.

[trelkel]

You could come up with any old nonsense and say it is unexplainable and unmeasurable and therefore irrefutable but that is extremely unconvincing for anyone except the most ignorant and unthinking listener.

[Jalcolm]

There is no reason why they shouldn’t canvas the opinion of the fellow relaxing under the tombstone behind them. Surely he is closer to the truth.

[keithrelyea]

He and Jordan Peterson should have a talk. Wo-wo all the way down.

[Normal-uw]

Waves..

Material is the modem for the spiritual and thus can be tuned

[mykrahmaan]

"Correlation" need not mean either it is a function of the brain or it is nonmaterial. It could very well be the result of interaction among the 3 permanent components (space dimension) of any body (eyes, teeth and bones) and interior of the earth, while brain, all other internal organs and flesh be transient components (time dimension, as linker of future being = future spatial dimension, to current) of each individual body, linking body parts of future beings to the current ones as corresponding to permanent soil and transient plants.

Thus also obviating the necessity to assume existence of an imaginary fourth dimension.

This is very reasonable to consider as that is the ONLY way LIFE can be defined as a MATERIALLY emerging phenomenon, particle physically verifiable by designing the mechanism of that interaction as conditioned through MOBILITY (magnitude and direction of motion) of particles uniquely determined by their sizes (instead of MASS) and centers from and towards which they are generated, accordingly, with subsequent derivation of the mathematical model of the mechanism how particle interactions inside the earth develop PLANTS on its own surface, to then deliver and sustain beings here through them.

The difference among the 3 types of entities (PLANTS, ANIMALS and HUMANS) conditioned by threshold numbers of minimum particles of unique center of origin combining inside the earth, would also provlde particle physical meaning to the difference among them.

Such interaction with interior of the earth to cause CONSCIOUSNESS is practically feasible as the maximum possible distance such interaction has to cover (= from any position on the surface of the earth to its center) is always less than half the distance a telephone call between New York and Singapore has to cover.

This SHOULD pave the way to PRACTICALLY PREVENT ALL EVIL (defined exhaustively as DISASTERS, PREDATION, DISEASES ~ which include all birth defects and all violence ~ AND DEATH) through our conscious influencing of how plants develop and growth on them by PROGRAMMING INTERNALLY the air we exhale and other substances (urine, stool, sweat, tear) each person releases to the soil and plants.

The mathematical model once derived would facilitate such INTERNAL PROGRAMMING of all the stuff we release to the surrounding INDIVIDUALLY, yet only become effective if it tallies with the PROPERTY of the FIELDS of plants conditioned by the MOBILITIES of particles that compose their seeds inside the earth.

If such growth possibility of interacting FIELDS OF PLANTS is linked to VIRTUE of the interacting person through derivation of the sizes of particles, then it would be obvious FIELDS OF PLANTS condition all social virtues too.

That indicates existence of a particle physical correspondece between DIGESTION and subsequent MENTAL FUNCTION to DEVELOPMENT OF (and subsequent growth on) PLANTS and PARTICLE INTERACTIONS INSIDE THE EARTH, accordingly.

Thus growth on plants would only occur if programming by different individuals tallies with the MOBILITIES conditioned interactions inside the earth that composed the seeds of the FIELDS involved, and the ability of relevant affected being to compose the clouds if rectification of nature's mistakes is required.

This brings particle physical purpose to human CONSCIOUSNESS (hence, also to LIFE FUNCTION), as well as a meaningful explanation (though not really SATISFACTORY) to existence of EVIL.

Thus, FIELDS OF PLANTS and CLOUD COMPUTING also become LITERAL, instead of both words (FIELD and CLOUD) being used only metaphorically at present by science.

That facilitates a 100% practically verifiable assumption as to MATTER composing MIND, if it paves the way ONLY to positively influence development of, and growth on, plants through particle physically conditioned VIRTUE.

[gordonquimby]

Kuhn asks the absolutely correct questions, but Ward wimps out on his answer of there being “Laws of Thought” that are different from the Laws of Physics. At 6:56 Kuhn asks. “Do you need something like a soul to combine with the brain to make consciousness?” Ward recoils at the use of “a loaded word.” Peer pressure is alive and well in the intelligentsia.

I contend that the thing that is “you” is in fact a spirit (they said soul) and it is consistent with the Laws of Physics. The spirit is not “stuff” in terms of atoms, it is something akin to a field that is located in the same 3-Dimensional space as your brain, but perhaps on a different additional dimension (physicists think there are additional dimensions). Your neurons have electric impulses going through them. Faraday’s Law would say that this electric impulse would create a field around that neuron. This is how your spirit can read each neuron when they fire. Then in the reverse, your spirit can initiate activity in other neurons controlling movement by generating a field around those neurons. This is demonstrated experimentally when magnetic fields are used to block perception of the color red, as well as cause the perception of red that is not present.

The only way your spirit can interact with this physical world is through your body via the brain. That is why there is a direct correlation between the brain and your thoughts. People who have had Near Death Experiences have experienced their spirit being released from the body to move on into the other dimensions of the spiritual universe. But when the body is revived, the connection is reestablished. Those people can’t find the words in this 3-D world to describe what their spirit just experienced.

[peweegangloku]

"A physical man does not accept the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot get to know them, because they are examined spiritually." - 1Corinthians 2:14

[Maxwell-mvrx]

This guys doesnt knows neurosience proceendings figure out conscieusness is nill so far . Guys conscieusness is spiritual is pseud neurosience. He keep out figure out his conscieusness model. Guys are talking about conscieusness left behind neurosience seriously.

[rc]

3:46 the extra component seem to be that which makes physical mater respond to different stimuli in a selective manner... thus far, only biological sructures seem to have that and not other physical structures...

[AfsanaAmerica]

I think consciousness is an individual's personality that comes to life.

[jamesruscheinski]

areas of thought and feeling in physical brain might point to consciousness?

[tomlee]

He's trying to describe soul without using the word soul.