metonymy4u

I think that avoiding mind over matter metaphors might help us see things in a more useful manner. For example, let’s see if we can conceptualize thoughts and emotions as part of a single phenomenon, neither mind nor matter but both. On this interpretation we would find it most useful to see thoughts as one aspect of an emotional response that also includes whole body responses. It’s not that the emotion causes the thought any more than liquidity causes water to flow over a table when poured out. It’s that flowing over a table and all the other phenomenological manifestations of water at room temp are the liquidity. Likewise the thoughts and all other body reactions are the emotion. If we reify liquidity or emotionality then we will be looking for things that are not necessary for effective modeling of the events being observed. I think of it this way: events occur and my body responds. Sometimes those responses include thoughts sometimes they don’t. If the thought is not being thought, i.e. if my body is not thinking right now, then the thought doesn’t exist. There is no mind over matter because matter is mind and mind is matter. Sometimes.