Friday, January 17, 2020

Evolution, Body, Mind

The replacement of Geocentrism by Heliocentrism is the replacement of one hypothesis by another, to accommodate the addition of a new set of data to the old one.  Kant's 'Copernican Revolution' is constituted by a replacement of one hypothesis by another with greater explanatory power.  But a different reason for the replacement of one hypothesis by another is a change in the original data.  For example, Kant's replacement of the concept of Mind conforming to Object, by that of Object conforming to Mind, could occur not because of a superior explanatory power, but because of the development of new Mental powers.  Now, if it is believed that Mind is changeless, then the latter change is impossible.  However, Spinoza's doctrine grounds the possibility of such a development.  According to it, Mind is the Idea of Body, so corresponding to any novel development in the latter would be a novel Mental development.  Now, Spinoza himself has no example of such a physical change at his disposal, but Evolutionist theory is rife with such examples, including, of course, the development of the human thumb.  So, such changes are not only possible, but are actual, perhaps within the course of intra-Species development, and not necessarily appearing immediately or dramatically. Hence, so too are novel Mental developments possible, perhaps even the capacity of Mind to adapt an Object to its structures, thus constituting the basis of Kant's Copernican Revolution.

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