Thinking about causality and reading about Hume recently has got me thinking a bit differently about the mind/body distinction. I think it's worth noting that Hume was a genius, and he knew it, and he seems to have made a point of writing about how well he knew it. I think pride inhibits a person's ability to introspect.
In any case, what I'm about to say about mind/body is not what Hume advocated. Hume just got me thinking along these lines.
I'm thinking that thoughts are an experiential phenomena.Thoughts are only noticeable as thoughts because they are changing. If I was observing the conscious mind of another being, I wouldn't be able to tell whether or not that being was thinking unless those thoughts changed with time. Likewise, I can't tell if I'm thinking or not, except by virtue of the constant changes in my thoughts. So self-awareness is arguably an experiential phenomena; empirical.
I don't know the implications of that kind of thinking; I need to consider it more.
"I see my whole life just pass by. When did I die?"
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