[Buddha-l] Physicalism (was Re: Emptiness)

[Alex Wilding]

Vera, Pedro L. wrote:
> Bill, as I see it, if you restate your question substituting brain for
> mind, then the conflict inherent in your question disappears.
I see: if you drop the original question and ask another one instead, one
with an easy answer, the problem disappears! Great - I'll try that if I ever
have to sit an exam again! For example, when stuck because I don't know the
square root of two, I'll substitute "half" for "square root", and get one as
the answer - full marks, eh?
For a minute I thought this was something new, but we have an election
campaign on here at the moment, and I have been reminded that politicians
have used this trick for generations.

Substituting "brain" for "mind" is *blatantly* attempting to beg the
question. (Proudly I still use "beg the question" in its true sense, so I
have not been totally contaminated by journalism.)

A more appropriate substitution would be "brain" for "body". This begs fewer
questions and has no obvious advantages, but has more justification. And
Bill's question looks very similar with this substitution.

All the best
Alex W