I don't believe that there's such thing as a spirit

[nismaratwork]

Strangely, I don't know when the language of "norms" and "deviance" surfaced in social science. I can't imagine they precede the notion that behavior can be defined in terms of statistical patterns of a larger population. I also wonder if "spirit" was always used to describe what would now be called "deviance" or whether normative behavior was also explained in terms of spirits. In a modern materialist mindset, it is common to think in terms of vectors for pathology but not for health - I think it is very recent that specific pro-health "vectors" are being considered rather than just treating health as the natural state of a "normally" functioning body. I have heard of being in "good spirits" or the religious notion of "holy spirit" but I don't know of any other specific references to spirits in a positive context. On the other hand, what kind of bad spirits are ever mentioned except "evil spirits" generally?




Maybe these people just haven't received enough nous from the aether:) Thanks for the history lesson. It's always interesting, if confounding, to hear these kinds of explanations that make little if any logical sense (at least not upon first reading). Well, they make a little sense but beyond the initial distinction between form and substance, I don't see the logic in the sub-level distinctions.

In the case of western European cultures, there is very little to be said for "good spirits", until you go back to Celtic and Norse legends... and even then it's a bit iffy. In the case of Indian (both types), Asian, and many other cultures you have spirits which rule or can aid everything from personal health to the fecundity of livestock. I can get a bunch of examples online, but it's not hard to research, and it's way off the original topic here. It would make for a good new thread however, and I'd be up for that.

 

[tJjohnstone]

WOW! Thanks for all the responses! I'm very tired but I'll have a read and respond tomorrow :D.

 

[tJjohnstone]

tJohnstone: Sorry that I got your intent off kilter!

No worries :)

You might want to look at:

The Emerging Physics of Consciousness - edited by J. A. Tuszynski - Springer 2006

I'll have a look, however I'm skeptical due to what others have said.

So, yes, in my experience, we, humans, have souls. Or rather, souls enable us to be aware and feel while existing in this physical bodies which are governed my natural laws, but via souls, free-will is possible, not just consciousness, pain and pleasure and other "human" qualities.

Sorry, but that simply isn't how science works.

 

[tJjohnstone]

Could the idea of spirits represent a premodern attempt to describe certain kinds of cultural processes where people's subjectivity comes to function in terms of subconsciously learned cultural parameters? This might be something like the way physicists used to try to explain the propagation of light with reference to a fictitious medium, "ether."

I've wondered that.

The killer is, consciousness may be largely illusory

A question I do have though is, if we don't have free choice, why would we have evolved the illusion of it? Honestly, I don't know if we have free choice, I haven't researched it enough to form an opinion, it's a very interesting topic as well.

 

[Math Is Hard]

I think you would be pretty hard-pressed to find studies that don't support the materialist perspective. You will find a wealth of research that demonstrates that if you physically or chemically change the brain, you alter the also mind/personality/behavior, more or less, what many people regard as "the soul".

I recall my introductory behavioral neuroscience textbook started off with a history of of philosophical views on materialism and dualism, and then basically went on to say: "If you have any ideas about dualism, get them out of your head right now."

Lesson 1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phineas_Gage" .

A question I do have though is, if we don't have free choice, why would we have evolved the illusion of it? Honestly, I don't know if we have free choice, I haven't researched it enough to form an opinion, it's a very interesting topic as well.

New topic, so let's save that for a new thread.