Thursday, 1 December 2011

Wednesday 7th December - Enquiry Topic


"Are we more than just a bag of chemicals?"
Posted by at 01:04

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just a quick thought on the topic of my interest. A distant contribution to the enquiry.
The title is the reflection of the following general expressions: we are more than sum of our parts or the whole is more than sum of its parts. I don’t agree with these common expressions. They are misleading and covey a static view of systems. Phrases like ‘’some of its parts’’, ‘’some of its bits” or “bag of chemicals” strengthen this static view to the point of likening the parts to a bag of Bombay mix. With this perspective in mind, there won’t be ‘we’, ‘whole’ or any parts with respect to the whole.
On the other hand, if we look at any system including us as made up of interacting parts and see the interactions as various dynamical relationships between the parts, then it becomes clearer that the properties of the system under observation emerge out of its interconnected parts. Even if one wishes to add a soul or an invisible man in the system, they would also need to be interconnected and interact with other parts in order to play their parts or manifest themselves.
Jubin

4 December 2011 21:15
Anonymous said...

In reply to Jubin :)

Hi it's Paul W here....

Of course it always goes without saying that we are interactive with our environment and where WE end and something or someone else begins is just a matter of opinion.
Thats kinda obvious? However, if we are to have ANY sort of meaningful discussion about ANYTHING AT ALL, we have to separate things into boxes and categories EVEN THOUGH we ultimately know and understand that these are purely relatavistic and ultimately deceptive terms. . The words we use are social constructs to help describe a particular thing. Whilst it is pretty obvious to me that there is ONE THING and it is the WHOLE THING,there does come a point when you can describe aspects such as individual personalities, individual DNA markers. If mankind had never begun to categorise then science would never have arisen. Yes, obviously we have to then relate it back to THE WHOLE THING, but there is a need to begin with the parts first and thus "are we more than just a bag of chemicals" is supposed to be a provocative way of asking "are we more than proteins, electrons etc" Personally, I dont think we are...but im interested in what others have to say on this socially constructed convenience we call "the human body"

6 December 2011 18:19
Anonymous said...

hi..Paul W here....another good discussion...i do like getting involved in this type of debate .....at some point late into the discussion I mentioned I would put the link to a very recent scientific study on heightened threat awareness and anxiety states in children who experience sustained violent threats either directly to themselves or via what was termed "intimate partner violence" i.e. violent or abusive acts directed toward a parent usually by the other parent/caregiver. The study was undertaken by Kings College London, Birbeck College London and University College London using fMRI scanning of childrens brains. Whilst this study is only with a small number of children I think the results are very powerful but see what you think and I'd be interested to know your thoughts. Of course, any initial work like this must then go on to be co-supported by others but fMRI scanning I believe is beginning to be able to convincingly reveal the inner workings of our brains.

So...

Here is the link to "Heightened neural threat in child victims of family violence"
http://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(11)01139-0


AND MARY.....WE HAVE YOUR HAT AND GLOVES...call us after 6 on 01704 539729 if you want to see them again before next wednesday.....or else we'll bring them with us then.....
Keep smilingt
Paul

8 December 2011 01:20

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