Of course, once they did, they found themselves deep in huge conundrums.
Mind
At Mind Matters News: Why do dogs understand people better than wolves?
In the study, the wolf pups were raised so as to trust humans and the dog pups were not. Yet the wolf pups did not trust humans — but the dog pups did.
How do humans have a number sense?
Mathematics may well be an argument for dualism, the idea that the universe is intrinsically dual. It is both concrete and abstract, depending. Both the Chimp Chocolate Stakes and Chaitin’s Unknowable Number.
At Mind Matters News: The reality of the mind: The argument from epilepsy
Neurosurgeon Michael Egnor asks, Why do epileptic seizures evoke many odd behaviors but not abstract thought?
Is panpsychism replacing materialism?
Panpsychism, in the form of Integrated Information Theory (IIT), is a much more serious competitor to dualism and idealism than materialism could hope to be. Panpsychists are not trying to claim that consciousness is merely an illusion. They may be wrong but they aren’t ridiculous.
At Mind Matters News: Quantum physics: Is everything determined? Egnor vs. Papineau, Round 6
Physicalist philosopher David Papineau is clearly unhappy with the implications of quantum mechanics, as neurosurgeon Michael Egnor sets them out.
At Mind Matters News: New find pushes symbolic thinking further back in human history
The incisions on the bone could be a message or a charm but in any event they are instances of abstract thinking.
At Mind Matters News: Can traditional philosophy help us understand mind vs. brain?
In the Western world, the traditional view of the soul originated with Greek philosophers, chiefly Aristotle and Plato.
At Mind Matters News: Egnor vs. Papineau Round 4, Egnor defends the mind vs. the brain
It became quite the dustup actually. Egnor deals with the brain as an organ, not a theory, and doesn’t see it as equivalent to the mind. Papineau differs.
At Mind Matters News: Neurosurgeon Michael Egnor takes on philosopher David Papineau, Round 1
In the debate, Egnor begins by offering three fundamental reasons why the mind is not the brain.
If you are not a materialist, there is no problem with understanding consciousness
So, according to LeDoux, what makes us explicitly human is merely a “rogue component”? Well, “rogue” according to whom?
Science journalist: No kidding, consciousness IS a Hard Problem
We don’t usually expect science writers to be as straightforward as Michael Hanlon (1964–2016) was in 2014. The temptation to chase after the latest buzz is probably hard to resist when you know that that’s what the Big Ideas crowd really wants anyway. But Hanlon resisted.
Child burial from 80,000 years ago shows the existence of abstract ideas
Perhaps the snail shell with the excisions gave an identity to “Mtoto” — a message to another world, perhaps, about who the child was. As more burials are found, we will start to get more answers. For example, if a number of such graves feature shells or similar objects with excisions, we can infer a symbolic intention.
Memories don’t stay put in neurons, they drift a lot
Textbooks did not tell most students that.
Will dualists win the consciousness argument?
If quantum measurements must include consciousness, the dualists are correct, says philosopher Angus Menuge: Consciousness exists in its own right.