Adjhart said:
I don't feel like distinguishing a difference between the brain and the mind is 'semantic nitpicking'. Even young children know there is a difference.
Well you're right, they don't describe the same concept. But this was all in response to your question whether neuroscientists study the mind, and in that sense there's no difference between what happens in the brain and the concept of a mind.
There's no difference?
I can't tell when synapses and receptors are working inside my brain, just like a neurosurgeon doesn't know what I'm dreaming about by looking at my grey matter. Perspective is the difference, and it's massive.
Adjhart said:
I'm not, as you are, even sure that the mind is a product of the brain. Quantum Mechanics has us thinking that consciousness comes before matter, and therefore that the mind comes before the brain. This is also the storyline of most every religion, mysticism, and occult.
Can you point me to scientific papers (that is, written by people who actualy know what quantum mechanics is) that say that consciousness comes before matter? Until then, I don't think this is anything more than wishful thinking.
Sure, American Physicist Henry Stapp hypothesizes it here. So much for wishful thinking.
Adjhart said:
Neuroscientists don't study the mind simply as a matter of redundancy to studying the brain. The fields are different; neurology, pyschology, psychiatry.
I don't think it's that strange to say that neuroscientists study the mind, and I think there's quite a bunch of people with neuroscientific education that would just as happily admit that they study the mind.
Ok, but they don't. As mentioned, Neuroscience is the study of Nervous Systems. Like we both already noted, nowhere in the definition of Neuroscience is the 'mind' referenced.
Adjhart said:
Neuroscientists aren't focused on how people deal with feelings, or what the innerverse of the mind can unlock. They are focused on which synapses fire, which receptors are activated, etc.
The brain is a nervous system, and as such, is studied by neurologists. Do you think people who deal with feelings don't do this with their brains? I'm sure
my brain deals with feelings, at least!
I think you misunderstood what I was saying.
Adjhart said:
The vast expanses of the mind are no where near being intelligibly interpreted by anything we have created thus far.
The sciences that study the brain and mind can't explain anything (at least not in ways certain laypeople would accept/understand), but other than that, I don't see how this is relevant.
You're placing a lot of faith in what conventional science has to say about their observations of the brain. I was saying that the vast expanses of the mind cannot be intelligibly interpreted by these scientific observations, because, as aforementioned, they lack perspective. Seems relevant to me.
Adjhart said:
The line that is clearly distinguishing the brain and mind is a topic of major importance and should be discussed frequently to aid in self-realization, which this world severely lacks.
I definitely agree, self-realization is important and could help a lot of people.