It’s a wonderful extract in any case. It is fascinating to see someone describing the world without anything more than the phenomenology of his surroundings. It is interesting that the concepts he had access to were mathematical and geometric- that these concepts involve a part of the brain separate from the part that involves more complex and obviously learned concepts like shoe, glove, and flower does seem important to keep in mind when evaluating the evidence on this issue. You’re right that this fact could lead to us positing a false ontological difference… though of course there are those who will say “gloveness” and “flowerness” are abstract objects as well. The fact that these concepts are processed in different parts of the brain could also be taken as evidence for the distinction in that different evolutionary processes generated these two kinds of concepts. I’m not sure how to interpret this. Good for keeping in mind though.
It’s a wonderful extract in any case. It is fascinating to see someone describing the world without anything more than the phenomenology of his surroundings. It is interesting that the concepts he had access to were mathematical and geometric- that these concepts involve a part of the brain separate from the part that involves more complex and obviously learned concepts like shoe, glove, and flower does seem important to keep in mind when evaluating the evidence on this issue. You’re right that this fact could lead to us positing a false ontological difference… though of course there are those who will say “gloveness” and “flowerness” are abstract objects as well. The fact that these concepts are processed in different parts of the brain could also be taken as evidence for the distinction in that different evolutionary processes generated these two kinds of concepts. I’m not sure how to interpret this. Good for keeping in mind though.