The "Actual" Nature Of Mental Processes Viewed Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Penrose (2004: 21):

Perhaps one comment will not be amiss here, however. This is that, in my own opinion, there is little chance that any deep understanding of the nature of the mind can come about without our first learning much more about the very basis of physical reality. As will become clear from the discussions that will be presented in later chapters, I believe that major revolutions are required in our physical understanding. Until these revolutions have come to pass, it is, in my view, greatly optimistic to expect that much real progress can be made in understanding the actual nature of mental processes.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, the material and the mental are different domains of meaning, and consciousness (the mind) involves verbal as well as mental processes, and through these, the interpersonal enactment of the self.

In terms of a hierarchy of systems, the material basis of the mind is a matter for biology (neuroscience), not physics, since it is biological organisation that gives rise to consciousness, as demonstrated by the absence of consciousness in material phenomena that are not biological, such as rocks or cyclones.

The notion that the "actual" nature of mental processes equates with their lowest level of organisation, that described by physics, is an example of reductionism.