Was Darwin’s horrid doubt just horrid – or a reasonable fear?:
… the horrid doubt always arises whether the convictions of man’s mind, which has been developed from the mind of the lower animals, are of any value or at all trustworthy. Would any one trust in the convictions of a monkey’s mind, if there are any convictions in such a mind?
I’d say that if his theory was true, horrid was a slam dunk (yes, you are an evolved monkey, no, your thoughts do not mean anything).
But very little in science turned out to be what Darwin or his contemporaries thought.
Non-materialist neuroscientists think that your mind is real and that it helps shape your brain. It is not a mere illusion created by the workings of the brain.
Here are some excerpts from the afternoon panel of the Beyond the Mind-Body Problem symposium (September 11, 2008), sponsored by the Nour Foundation, UN-DESA, and the Université de Montréal. The excerpts feature some interesting exchanges between a number of non-materialist neuroscientists.
Excerpts from the morning panel are here.
Both the morning and afternoon panels were televised and can be viewed here.