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Single Idea 2426

[filed under theme 15. Nature of Minds / A. Nature of Mind / 5. Unity of Mind ]

Full Idea

The 'grain problem' for materialism was raised by Sellars: how could an experience be identical with a vast collection of physiological events, given the homogeneity of the former, and the fine-grainedness of the latter?

Clarification

'Homogeneity' is a smooth seamless quality

Gist of Idea

Why are minds homogeneous and brains fine-grained?

Source

David J.Chalmers (The Conscious Mind [1996], 3.8.5)

Book Ref

Chalmers,David J.: 'The Conscious Mind' [OUP 1997], p.306

A Reaction

An interesting question, but it doesn't sound like a huge problem, given the number of connections in the brain. If the brain were expanded (as Leibniz suggested), the 'grains' might start to appear. We can't propose a 'deceived homunculus' to solve it.

The 25 ideas with the same theme [unified character of the thinking mind]:

2127 The mind has parts, because we have inner conflicts [Plato]
1737 The soul seems to have an infinity of parts [Aristotle on Plato]
24046 Understanding is impossible, if it involves the understanding having parts [Aristotle]
1717 If the soul is composed of many physical parts, it can't be a true unity [Aristotle]
24053 If a soul have parts, what unites them? [Aristotle]
1721 What unifies the soul would have to be a super-soul, which seems absurd [Aristotle]
5145 The rational and irrational parts of the soul are either truly separate, or merely described that way [Aristotle]
21387 The separate elements and capacities of a mind cannot be distinguished [Lucretius]
5884 How can one mind perceive so many dissimilar sensations? [Cicero]
5887 The soul has a single nature, so it cannot be divided, and hence it cannot perish [Cicero]
5506 If soul was like body, its parts would be separate, without communication [Plotinus]
2302 Faculties of the mind aren't parts, as one mind uses them [Descartes]
21805 Spinoza held that the mind is just a bundle of ideas [Spinoza, by Schmid]
5045 No machine or mere organised matter could have a unified self [Leibniz]
1356 A person is a unity, and doesn't come in degrees [Reid]
24090 Our inclinations would not conflict if we were a unity; we imagine unity for our multiplicity [Nietzsche]
7152 With protoplasm ½+½=2, so the soul is not an indivisible monad [Nietzsche]
7130 Unity is not in the conscious 'I', but in the organism, which uses the self as a tool [Nietzsche]
4536 It is a major blunder to think of consciousness as a unity, and hence as an entity, a thing [Nietzsche]
7108 The eternal truth of 2+2=4 is what gives unity to the mind which regularly thinks it [Sartre]
5792 Explanation of how we unify our mental stimuli into a single experience is the 'binding problem' [Searle]
3480 We experience unity at an instant and across time [Searle]
2957 Brain bisection suggests unity of mind isn't all-or-nothing [Nagel, by Lockwood]
2426 Why are minds homogeneous and brains fine-grained? [Chalmers]
4924 A conscious human being rapidly reunifies its mind after any damage to the brain [Edelman/Tononi]