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| - Wow, I´m sure that light is just an electro-magnetic phenomenon of some kind! |
It has become increasingly common among materialists to argue that the mind or consciousness isn´t a "thing" but rather a "process". Thus, no reductionism is needed. The mind doesn´t need to be reduced to something else, since "mind" simply *is* a purely material process itself. Perhaps we could compare this to the "mind" of a computer, which is identical to the purely mechanical process seemingly giving "rise" to it?
Presumably, then, things like love, meaning, spirituality or the quest for the beautiful and sublime simply *are* material processes. But from that follows that purely material processes can be loving, meaningful, spiritual, and quest for the beautiful and sublime...
But if so, matter itself is sentient, indeed, sapient. There is another word for this idea. I believe the word is "animatism". The 19th century cultural evolutionists believed that animatism was the lowest state of the savage mind, even lower than animism. It was the idea that there were no nature-spirits, rather the trees, rocks or clouds *themselves* were conscious.
Of course, today we are *scientific* (mind you) and *know* that only matter organized in a very specific way can *possibly* process itself in this manner. There! We also know better than those Papuan cargo cultists that *of course* the cargo will arrive, if we just call another United Nations summit of processed brains.
I mean, isn´t that obvious?
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