Mindmatter: Archive

“And Lo, for the Earth was empty of Form, and void. And Darkness was all over the Face of the Deep. And We said: ‘Look at that fucker Dance.’” —Madame Psychosis (via maxistentialist)

Sep 20, 201027 notes

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Sep 18, 2010

“‘If I cannot definitively prove that the usefulness of religion is in the past, and that it’s foundational books are transparent fables, and that it is a man-made imposition, and that it has been an enemy of science and inquiry, and that it has subsisted largely on lies and fears, and been the accomplice of ignorance and guilt as well as of slavery, genocide, racism, and tyranny, I can most certainly claim that religion is now fully aware of these criticisms. It is also fully aware of the ever-mounting evidence, concerning the origins of the cosmos and the origin of species, which consign it to marginality if not to irrelevance’” —C. Hitchens

Sep 18, 201058 notes

“

A Woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. She lowered her altitude and spotted a man in a boat below. She shouted to him, “Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don’t know where I am.”

The man consulted his portable GPS and replied, “You’re in a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above ground elevation of 2,346 feet above sea level. You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude.

She rolled her eyes and said, “You must be an Obama Democrat.” “I am,” replied the man. “How did you know?” “Well,” answered the balloonist, “everything you told me is technically correct. But I have no idea what to do with your information, and I’m still lost. Frankly, you’ve not been much help to me.”

The man smiled and responded, “You must be a Republican.” “I am,” replied the balloonist. “How did you know?”

“Well,” said the man, “you don’t know where you are — or where you are going. You’ve risen to where you are , due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. You’re in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but somehow, now it’s my fault.”

” —

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I do not know much about this subject since I have never had any course in neurobiology but maybe you can enlighten me.

I’m currently working on a paper on the subject, so i was more or less just looking for some feedback/validation from someone who seems to know a thing or two about philosophy. I’m trying to integrate theories from the philosophy of language into discussions from neuroscience about the role of mirror neurons. There’s a great paper, worth reading, called “Mirror Neurons and the Simulation Theory of Mind Reading”, which outlines a basic theory of how the mirror neuron system plays a role in our ability to understand the intentional states of other people (theory of mind). Pair this with John Searle’s theory of speech acts, and you have the basic thesis of my paper.

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