Vaniver comments on Open Thread: September 2011 - LessWrong

5 Post author: Pavitra 03 September 2011 07:50PM

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Comment author: Vaniver 23 September 2011 01:55:23AM 0 points [-]

I think the question here is not "is this an open question" but "are there people who disbelieve this?". I can imagine neurobiologists who cannot rule out epiphenomena about thoughts.

Comment author: MinibearRex 23 September 2011 04:02:23AM 0 points [-]

True, I can imagine that as well. I guess my question was really more about prevalence. How common are these people?

Comment author: Vaniver 23 September 2011 02:18:01PM 0 points [-]

I came across this in an unrelated discussion:

Neuroscientists generally assume that all mental processes have a concrete neurobiological basis.

Searching for something similar in Google Scholar might give you lots of sources to suggest to the grad student that most neuroscientists are reductionists.

Comment author: Jack 29 September 2011 11:19:20AM 3 points [-]

Neuroscientists generally assume that all mental processes have a concrete neurobiological basis.

This is vague enough to not be at all inconsistent with epiphenomenalism.