Gilbert Ryle ... New URL Coming

Not much to report today. I had Philosophy of the Mind last night and I'd give a report on what I learned except I'm not sure I could even explain it to myself, let alone anyone else. We were reacting to Gilbert Ryle, who makes the argument that one of the critical problems when discussing the "mind-body problem" comes from the language we use to discuss it.

It gets a lot deeper than this, but one thing I can expound on is that the language we use to describe the mind cannot be the same language that we use to describe the body, or events we observe the body in. If the mind is non-spatial and non-physical, as it is proposed by most substance dualists like Descartes, then to use phrases like "My mind is inside me" is logically invalid, since that which has no spatial qualities cannot be positioned inside anything. There's also a temptation on the part of dualists to describe the mind using processes similar to the body, just in a more mystical way. Again, these descriptions are logically invalid, borrowing metaphors to speak about something that must be entirely unmetaphorical. That's as far as I'll go for now.

One thing I do want to announce is a bought a new domain name last night: 86Madness.com. Right now, there's nothing there, so I didn't even hyperlink the URL. But when you dial in listentobrian.com after this weekend, that's where you'll be directed. Where does the name come from? There's a story to it (having to do with the pic above) and I'll have a full retelling when I migrate the blog. Until then, updates will appear here as usual.