The possibilities of physicalism (1 of 4)

[Andrew4Handel]

Physicalism about the mind breaks the law of identity. Neurons firing and trillions of neurons are not the same as thoughts. You couldn't explain the link causally or in a law like fashion of emergence.

[Andrew4Handel]

The evidence of non physical things consists in dreams, logic, thoughts and experience which are only accessible to the subjective conscious self..

You make the assumption these are purely physical and I am only at 1.11.

Another issue that I am concerned you won't cover is in defining the physical which I think is impossible. usually definitions of material and physical are tautologous.

[AnduinX]

Also, John Lorber's work was posted in a leading medical journal in 1980, which was centered around hydrocephalus. In severe hydrocephalus, some patients are left with a small fraction of the brain mass of a normal person ( <5% ), with seemingly no mental deficits - some are in fact highly intelligent, as was the case of a mathematics student with "virtually no brain".

[AnduinX]

It's rare for people with brain damage to have clear thought as they approach death. Most people with severe brain damage never emerge from their dementia, but that it happens at all is a serious problem for materialism, I think. Why would people suddenly regain their sanity, cognitive abilities, and memory despite the fact that the brain damage supposedly responsible for their affliction is still very much there? There is no good materialist answer to this.

[AnduinX]

There's also a great deal of medical mystery that points to mind/brain separation. For example, those with severe brain damage (some with virtually no brain) often can't even remember the names and faces of family members, hold a conversation, or do much of anything - yet as they near death, some of these people enter a lucid state of clear thought where they are able to remember clearly and hold a conversation. The phenomenon is called 'Terminal Lucidity'.

[AnduinX]

people who hold that there is no evidence of the non-physical must not have looked very hard. Currently, there is an article that was just published in a leading psychology journal (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology) affirming ESP. The societies for psychical research have been publishing peer reviewed papers in journals for decades.

[AnduinX]

Quantum physicists often work with theoretical particles and dimensions that we have no direct evidence of (such as the Higgs Boson). These are theoretical constructs proposed to make our models of physics work. By the same token, I would not say that there is no evidence for the non-physical. While the non-physical might not be directly observed, we could still postulate the existence of the non-physical by the effect the non-physical has on what we can observe.

[janko1212]

Great video!

[hamzah938]

Bacteria is there but you can't see it. If you tried to convince a Viking of it's existence he could say 'I'm a physicalist!' and deny the existence of bacteria. So as a secular human being in todays environment, we have no problem admiting bacteria does indeed exist.  So what will the future bring in our awareness of what we can't see today.

[MallGrabMcTwist]

ooooooooooOOoo... now i get epypheno?ilism..... i was so confused until you said neurons firing...

[GekkeMalloot]

Consiousness is detached from the body at the moment of 'dying' (that is actually the act of dying). Physically nothing changed for an infinite small moment, but the immaterial part of the person is gone and after that the physical parts cease as well. The replacement argument, the aboutness argument and the modal argument are strong arguments in favor of dualism. Neither is determinism gaining much support. And knowledge?If there are no physical objects, 2+2 still makes 4.....

[scotty]

I love this series 1-4 The possibilities of physicalism. Well done!

[xXErringHigenXx]

your reading something bub

[PoliMeim]

@xXErringHigenXx she does this in every video. she probably types out exactly what she will say prior to the video so that she doesn't screw up as much as she would if she didn't have a "script." Since what she reads from is so close to the camera, her glancing away is almost unnoticeable, so I wouldn't worry about it. :)

[maplebayou1]

Physicalism should not be confused with methodological naturalism. Every ontology, including physicalism, makes assumptions. Saying that we can be “reasonably certain” that the physical world exists is built on nothing at all. There is no conceivable test of such a proposition, and physicists often express impatience with such distinctions. What you are really getting at is the exclusion of untestable propositions as a research strategy. This is fine.

[batfly]

You're premise to reject a spiritual nature / realm is to say there is always some kind of physical instigator to initiate a so called spiritual experience...

You're premise ignores the possibility physical / material stuff is just an illusion being consciously projected.

When one dives head first into the quantum level one realizes the possibility becomes even more apparent than just a mere possibility.

[Tohnrenable]

ZJ, you are wrong to assume that kmsoleau undermines himself with his criticism. This is because you are begging the question. He's saying that IF your position is true, then there is no point to you making these videos. You say that there is therefore no point in his criticizing you as well. This is not true, because, in fact kmsoleau thinks your position is WRONG. His argument is that of a reducto ad absurdum. He is not also absurd for saying you are, he's saying you are wrong BECAUSE of it.

[papertrailTIP]

Consider this, an eye is capable of seeing. The eye itself is matter and seeing is the shape or form. Without seeing the eye is just matter without shape or form, but an eye that can see is actuality.

If you apply this concept to humans, a human without a soul is just matter without actuality. Also, have you ever heard the Mary's Room theory. If noy you should look into it.

[papertrailTIP]

Physicalism does make assumptions. When you say that it only works from what we know, you claim that we as humans know everything. Humans lack the ability to know everything and therefore we can't claim with certainty that the physical world is all there is. Your claims have never been shown to be true either.

NDE for example have not been explained by science and by the belief of solipsism can't be observed or explained by anyone on the outside.

[LittleSn00py]

If the universe came into being by a cause, then there is a nonphysical domain. That would make physicalism a special case.

[MidnightDC696969]

at 1:12 my question is, by what contrast do you assume that the physical world exists....how do you measure the physical reality without a non physical reality to contrast it?

what is a bowl without the hollow? what about the room your in now is there more objects or emptyness(subjective reality) coz all that emptyness has far more potential than the objects that suround....

ever listen to Alan Watts or Baba Ram Dass?

[dav37777777]

speaking of physicalism ....this is the first visable sign of zj's physical transformation into a female. the physical act of wearing the earings causes a mental chian reaction in his brain resulting in a compromised sence of masculinity and transforming his very existance.

[kmsoileau]

Well, if you are right and everything is physical, then you can't help having your opinions and your viewers can't help having theirs. So your videos are apparently nothing more than a waste of time, bandwidth and electricity.

[ZJemptv]

Are you saying free will isn't a physical phenomenon?

[kmsoileau]

@ZJemptv Well, that depends on the definition of free will. Specifically, "free" from what? I would suggest that it means free from absolute constraint to follow a predetermined destiny. That suggests an independence of purely physical processes. Otherwise, we would follow the destiny established by physical law, thus we would not have free will.

[ZJemptv]

There's not much sense in talking about this as if we were in some way separate from what you consider to be "absolute constraint". We aren't something distinct from physical processes. We *are* physical processes. There's nothing for us to be "freed" from, unless you think the ability to arbitrarily violate physical laws is a freedom we lack. In any case, there is no "predetermined destiny", as we can't reliably derive future states from the present state due to randomness at the quantum level.

[kmsoileau]

@ZJemptv Nothing you said departs from my original point. In your conception of reality, you can't help thinking what you think, and your viewers can't help thinking what they think. Your videos are a waste of time, bandwidth and electricity.

[ZJemptv]

I'm pretty sure the fact that there isn't actually a predetermined destiny is indeed damaging to the notion that we're somehow bound to a physically-determined "fate". Regardless, even if it were true, there would obviously be no sense in you attacking me for saying what I was going to say anyway, given that I presumably had no choice in the matter. Your criticism undermines itself.

[kmsoileau]

@ZJemptv LOL How can my criticism undermine itself? Your reasoning that my criticism undermines itself is based on the premise that my criticism is correct, i.e. that you have no free will. Which is exactly my criticism. Hardly an undermining. But I guess you had no choice but to make that logical blunder.

[ZJemptv]

"How can my criticism undermine itself?"

Because if it were true, it would be inapplicable and thus irrelevant? Shouldn't be too hard to understand. Now, on the other hand, if it's not true, then obviously it's just plain wrong. In either case it's meaningless, and what you said wasn't even a criticism of any of my arguments in the first place, just pointless meta-commentary on the very act of producing a video rather than actually addressing its content.

[vooooom]

I certainly believe in the physical and there is nothing to make me believe that anything not consisting of matter or energy exists. I wish for someone to try to explain to me what the non-physical IS. Not defining it as things that it is not but as what it IS and how we know what that IS.

[1aaronaaron1]

did you write this all yourself? wow

[infonomics]

Damn good video. Thanks for sharing.

[thaprecepta]

god, you make my dick so hard

[thecupdidit]

r u reading this the whole way through becoz its not usual for someone to talk that way your like a monotone robot. like a machine. its not cool. x but thanks x and plz cut ur hair becoz sadly, u do look a little bit like a girl but i know ur a dude x

[usa8056]

that is the most random shit. Are you even listening to what he is taking about? Of course not because your ADD kicked in and you got lost.

[NaeBlisAshaman]

@usa8056 your so right about the add.... lol

[dimecollector1]

seriously, are you a guy or a girl?

[chrissullz]

I am a male, I am Canadian, I am 19, and you have misused the word bias, I am simply asking a question

[norcaltosocal]

YOu look like an ugly ass girl. You need to make a choice, I am a girl or a guy.

[ZJemptv]

What's your problem?

[edydon]

You've simply come up with another label for Atheism.

Nature tends towards chaos - the law of increasing entropy - people age, your room gets messy, houses of cards collapse.

Yet science itself is an based on profound rules and symetries - a sublime architecture.

If there's an architecture, there's an architect.

[TalynCo]

And literalism should not be applied to metaphors.

[gagnashdiak]

Atheism is related to beliefes in gods: it has a lack of it. In opposit physicalism tries to answer questions. They corellate but are not the same.

Marginally an atheist can believe in supernatural causes even.

And a pile of logs thrown randomly together has an architecture. Sand-dunes have architecture. But none have an architect, a constructor.

Nature works more phantastic in itself then we imagine.

[Paradoxical003]

we arent archetecture

we arent paintings

we arent watches or lines in sand.

make a watch bleed, teach a watch a skill, make a new watch by having 2 watches have sex.

[marsCubed]

@Paradoxical003

When did life discover the golden ratio?

Was it when we were barely a cell?

virus?

It is a proportion of least action, a perfect form which we find in paintings, architecture and even in watch making.

Are you really so dull that you find no beauty or grace in Nature's form, or depth in her tide of time. that you would posit bigotry and pride as deity?

You got it BTW, watches having sex with watches + variation, may eventually make clocks, bad poets, and love.

Isn't it wonderful

[hannahalal]

Your ideas are valid... but what makes a heart beat in a tiny fetus? My daughter, who is a research scientist getting her PhD, says as you get higher in education a lot of questions are now being answered by saying, "Intellegent Design".  In other words, the physical is so mind blowing that it had to have been designed with Intellegence. Bless you with your search for truth.

[toweringQ2FL400]

hannahalal

what makes a heart beat in a tiny fetus

The questions for you are ... What makes it stop? Why do some never start?

research scientist getting her PhD "Intellegent (sic) Design".

First, what institution is this? I want to avoid it and anyone trained there.

Second, lets look at the design of the human body, the zenith of ID.

You only have to throw your back out once to recognize lousy engineering.

Con't

[toweringQ2FL400]

The tailbone. We have the genes to grow a tail but these genes are inhibited. Once in awhile this gene is not inhibited and a child is born with a tail. I leave it to your imagination what would have happened before the enlightenment.

Body Hair. We all have everything we need to be covered head to foot in hair. See hypertrichosis. Imagine being born this way in a different day, or a different place.

[toweringQ2FL400]

The appendix. Another dysteleological organ responsible for uncountable numbers of fairly miserable deaths by septicemia.

Wisdom teeth. Unnecessary and usually troublesome, until modern dentistry they often meant a lifetime of discomfort.

Intelligently designed by a caring, loving god?

[TheCeejReturns]

@toweringQ2FL400

The appendix is an important part of digestion. Only out of necessity is it removed, as you would rather have your food improperly digested than be killed by the bacteria escaping and doing bad things to the rest of your body. Granted, if there were a caring, loving god who designed it, digestion should work by magic, right? Or, at the very least, the appendix should be nearly unburstable.

[squamish4244]

@toweringQ2FL400 You don't have to believe in a God to believe that the mind may not be directly dependent on the brain.

[magicalhearingman]

@toweringQ2FL400 Are you honestly trying to say that wisdom teeth is supporting evidence for physicalism, because it proves that there is no omnipotent omniscient masculine bearded caucasian anthropomorphic unconditionally loving Christian God? What has the world come to

[toweringQ2FL400]

@magicalhearingman Are the teeth proof? No, but yet another question that must be answered before any claim for a omnipotent omniscient masculine bearded caucasian anthropomorphic unconditionally loving Christian God's existence can be concidered, to whit: how could an omnipotent omniscient masculine bearded caucasian anthropomorphic unconditionally loving Christian God be so breathtakingly incompetent at bioengineering? Then we could move on to communication skills, or absence thereof.

[magicalhearingman]

@toweringQ2FL400 Ignorance at its finest

[TheCeejReturns]

@toweringQ2FL400

As for body hair, we lost most of it due to the fact we wear clothes. We didn't need it, so evolution gradually got rid of most of it. It stays on our head (mostly) to shield the top of our head from sunlight, which could easily sunburn our head in a way no loving god should allow (so add bald guys to the list of people this loving god hates?). It stays in our underarms and nether regions for catching pheremones.

[TheReasonWhyGuy]

I've decided to feature this video series...

[TheReasonWhyGuy]

The mind is a program that runs in the computer of the brain.

[1LBRTY]

I agree! At its roots, the mind is a reflex arc, as described in any introductory physiology textbook:

1. sensory input

2. integration

3. motor output

The funny thing about the human mind, in contrast to spinal reflexes, is that the sensory input can be either real or imagined as can the motor output. Thus, we have a hyperactive mental world subject to the fallacies of a monkey see, monkey do mode of operation. Thought itself is therefore a serious obstacle to knowing genuine truth.

[drummermonkey]

Wrong, physicalism is not the view that everything that is is physical. It's only a theory about the mind, not a general metaphysical theory about all that is that has consequences for the theory of mind. Further, you haven't made the case for physicalism outside of saying "physicalism is true", but why think it's true? In addition you noted there are a variety of dualisms but there is also a variety of physicalisms, and you haven't even clarified what "physical" is.

[shanoxilt]

Wrong.

It IS in fact a metaphysical system.

Its opposite is idealism.

[drummermonkey]

So if it is an overarching metaphysical system, it is clearly false. Many philosophers hold hat propositions exist, they are the objects of beliefs and are true or false. Propositions are also NOT physical in any clear sense of the word.

[mounthydra]

"That's what science means. There's not government-science and indie-science. Just science"

I question if any type of scientific findings have been suppressed due to ideological and political reasons. Their is currently a near death study taking place right now with cameras in the OR to test for out of body experiences. It would be interesting to see the results. Regardless of "anecdotal" stories, doctors and staff have verified reports of patients describing events while under.

[blueboyblue]

So, it is either -

I think, therefore I am.

OR

I am, therefore I think.

OR

I am, therefore I am ... I think?

Interesting.

[mohamedbongfish]

one isnt meant to follow the other. they go hand in hand and descartes would say you cant doubt either.

[shanoxilt]

No. It is closer to:

I am thought.

[theosophers]

Research "qualia" and find out whether or not you qualify as a qualiaphobe...

[billybobjoe198]

Notice there's not a word for non physical? Because physical covers everything. Dumb nigger.

[hollium]

While I see that it makes sense from a materialistic point of view, I think it's just a theory that some egocentric scientist came up with to disprove any spiritualism. I'd just like to see them find a thought, and idea, and prove that it doesn't exist because it isn't physical.

[ZJemptv]

I think, to disprove spriritualism, it would have to be proven to begin with, before we can go about looking for ways to disprove it.

Same goes for pretty much anything else -- to disprove something that hasn't even been proven, would mean having to prove a negative.

People could come up with all sorts of "interesting" but unproven ideas, and then demand that everyone else prove them wrong.

Basically, the burden of proof lies with whoever is making a positive claim.

[smoorkonijn]

Unproven by who , who says it's 'proven'? Yes society and scientists who work for the government. You can have your opinion , it's your right i'm not saying or 'demanding' you to believe me. You posted a video and basically asked for opinions or diff view points or are you that narrow minded?

Usually there are 2 sides to a story , maybe one day ( and I believe that will be one day ) you'll see that you're more then your body.

[ZJemptv]

Scientists working for the government, and scientists who aren't, are studying the same natural world. That's what science means. There's not government-science and indie-science. Just science. I don't think empiricism is narrow-minded -- indeed, it has to be ready for anything that happens! And if I do ever see that there's something to myself beyond my body, I'm ready to believe that. Emphasis on the *if* -- until we *do*, there's really not any reason to propose new and unprovable things.

[shanoxilt]

You need help. Conspiracy theories are bad for mental functioning.

[Standoman6546]

thats not a conspiracy theory its just a theory

[smoorkonijn]

We used to believe earth was flat , then someone said it wasn't and he was laughed at , people used to believe in witches when something 'strange' happend and used to burn innocent women , now everything that doesn't comply with 'modern' science is considered fake. We keep making the same mistake over and over again , not looking outside the box. for example micho kaku said to be next einstein said that there are multiple dimension etc just see what he says

[hollium]

Sorry, was that a reply to me?

I agree with what you said, anyway.

I don't think that the fact that we haven't proved that ideas/thoughts are physical makes them any less real than they are.

[1aaronaaron1]

define "the box"

[fattyJNL]

i love your blank "face"

[DethFromAbv]

wait

why are you wearing earrings

[ZJemptv]

Felt like it.

[smoorkonijn]

Your education gets in the way of this , we are 'molded' into these materialistic shallow little workers in school. Everything we perceive is 'physical' , we used to think a chair or a table was physical untill we discovered its made out of atoms.

Really study out of body experiences , for example look up ' albert taylor soul travelere ' he's an ex nasa employee who worked on many shuttles who used to think it was ridiculous untill he started experiencing it for himself.

[ZJemptv]

Atoms are physical -- plenty of empty space between them, but they nevertheless form structures that hold together. Where's the non-physical part of an atom?

[smoorkonijn]

Your missing the point , all I wanted to make clear was to do your own research instead of keeping your whole education in my mind. But do what you want with my advice and I don't ask you to believe me. The great thing is you can learn it yourself.

[smoorkonijn]

in mind*

[shanoxilt]

I HAVE done my own research. That is why I know mind/body dualism is a myth perpetuated by mystics and morons.

[smoorkonijn]

Wrong , the so called 'evidence' you ask for would have to be in a physical form which is not possible to provide because it isn't something physical. And our society is to blame for this kind of thinking , look how materialistic we are , look how shallow we are and it is all because we think we are our bodies. While we most deff aren't

[ZJemptv]

Okay, so if it's impossible for there to be evidence of it, then how do you figure it exists? What basis do you have for claiming that we most definitely aren't are bodies? What are we, if not our bodies?

By the way, materialism is really one of those "dog whistle" words with two meanings that people intentionally conflate to be misleading. Philosophical materialism is pretty much the same as physicalism, but "materialism" is more commonly seen as an obsession with buying and owning stuff.