[ExI] Is anyone an expert on Aristotle and Life?

[natasha at natasha.cc]

   Quoting Tara Maya <tara at taramayastales.com>:

> There seems to be folk psychology, shared by all humans, that   
> distinguishes body from soul. Different cultures, of course, talk   
> about the soul in different ways, some have more than one level,   
> some link it to breath, others to blood or possession by a totem   
> animal or god, etc. but nonetheless, all human cultures agree that   
> there is some additional component to a human being than just a   
> body...and often this component is seen as being uniquely human.   
> When it is seen as belonging to animals or trees as well, it is   
> because those animals or trees are also anthropomorphized. (As in   
> cultures where bears or jaguars are viewed as ancestors who were   
> once human, to take just one of many examples.)

   Yes.

> It is striking that this belief in a soul is so pervasive.

   Well said.

   >Twentieth 
> century science discovered how the soul can be real without being   
> anything besides brain matter. Brain matter is the substrate,   
> personality is the program. But some materialists have taken this  
> to  mean that the soul (or psyche or personality or memes) cannot  
> be  separated from the body.
>
> This is where most transhumanists disagree. Why could the program   
> not be run on a different substrate?

   That's the point. 

> I actually think one would have an easier time interesting  
> Aristotle  or Plato  in the transhumanist project than extreme  
> materialists. In  fact, I think to most pre-modern peoples, the idea  
> that one could,  with the right tool, take the soul out of one kind  
> of body and put  it into another kind of body would be self-evident.

   The diachronic self.

   Natasha

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