I enjoyed reading that, very insightful.
I mean, I could see how some may view it as transparent but IMHO I believe that those are the building blocks of understanding the main criteria to differentiate what is actually valid from what's secondary, from what's invalid.
The key that resonated with me which you mentioned and which we fail to mention when we speak of determinism is the functions at a subconscious level, which we clearly have no awareness of.
Freud would continuously describe the mind as an iceberg with the conscious mind being the small portion visible tho entire construct was more complex.
You know, I have assisted with many brain surgeries amongst others and can tell you it is a fascinating thing!
It has so many tiny blood vessels that you can actually see the cells flowing through some of them under the surgical microscope…the whole thing pulses with the heartbeat.
I’ve also seen many miraculous outcomes transpire where you would have never thought a person could live though such a thing much less be relatively normal.
I also used to be a supervisor at the Center for Neuro Skills in Ca some time back and worked with many brain injured people…several were cops who had been shot in the head.
It was a difficult job for someone as empathetic as an INFJ…there were people there who told me with their eyes that they would rather not be alive as they were trapped in atrophied, paralyzed bodies. That one in a million where one of them just regains his abilities he/she had before never materialized while I worked there.
Still, it is an interesting thing to work with someone who’s brain malfunctions because of an injury.
We had a fellow named “Sarge”, he was a former cop, didn’t really understand where the hell he was, didn’t remember most things past 5 minutes…but anything you related to being a cop he would do, he would remember…so you would say to him for example “Sarge, we gotta go shave so we can look presentable in our uniform”…whereas if you told him it was time to shave he’d tell you to “go to hell” hahaha.
Anyhow, I’ve always been interesting in the brain and neurobiology/chemistry since I was about 13.
I remember I checked out a book, and tbh, I didn’t understand it all at the time, but was fascinated by it nonetheless, and I even formed a hypothesis that reaching the state of “enlightenment” in meditative practice was the subsequent build up and natural overdose of our own neurochemicals.
I think it’s still a sound argument, but it would be testable to a point.
You speak of subconscious activities that our brain’s participate in…it’s amazing really how much goes on that we just don’t even register, even when you try and ponder all that is happening it seems endless really.
We take for granted that this reality is created for us by our brain..or mind…or both(?).
We don’t stop to think that there really is no color, only wavelengths of light intercepted by special cells and interpreted as this or that color by the brain/mind. (the picture doesn’t even come into our eyes right side up, the brain flips it)
The same goes for sound…more waves in the ether.
The sensation of touch, of smell, of taste, of orgasm, created by us.
What is solid? Everything is energy vibrating at different wavelengths, including us.
Why does the human heart and bowels have neurons?
Why does the heart send 3 times as many signals to the brain as it send to the heart?
Where does consciousness within our own body end? Do cells have a basic form of consciousness?
Or as some suggest…as an organism becomes increasingly more complex then consciousness must eventually emerge?
Where is it emerging from?
These are all just questions that are fun to flip around in your head btw…not expecting an answer to them haha.
