The Fleeting Vision

Traditionally the human mind manages the interior life of thought, fantasy and passion. The brain observes and governs the exterior life of action in a world of matter in motion. The mind is aware of time and the brain is cognizant of space. Increasingly the brain assumes all these duties thinking to itself: The mind is nothing but a ghost in a machine. This brain may notice that this thought is in its native tongue. If an image accompanies this idea "Je pense, donc je suis" is probably not the one.What do the doctrines of materialism and dualism have in common? Neither privately ricochets around within a brain or publically reverberates through society by means of telepathy. Each is an idea about human existence burdened by concerns articulated in words. Both notions live in a linguistic reality with a vivid image of a bodily host. An image is the visual form an idea takes. An idea is the light that reveals the image. If the idea is not very bright the image is not very sharp.A brain might remind itself in its customary language: We do not examine the experience of an image or an idea, but the concepts "image" and "idea" and thus expressions employing words as Wittgenstein suggests (P I 383).With droll wit Brain transmits its thoughts in words not waves commanding Language: Picture this Outspoken One; the sun is like a pendulum swinging above the world as it turns. Language retorts, "Hells bells Circuit Board You have the simile backward. A pendulum resembles Old Sol swaying solstice to solstice as earth rolls round the sun." You don't say? "Yes I do but do you get the picture? Imagine language is a form of life. Think the thought 'Language is literally alive.' Obviously the idea is in words and not brain waves. So, Old Gray Matter, sketch the alien creature the words depict."Language is a magical Form of Life full of Images and Ideas. The clever tricks words play have enchanting powers of persuasion. We look at Brains in action but what we see are "Minds." We look at Eternity every second we are awake and aware but what we see is "Time." Language fits all Creation in a week and on Day One there is Light but it is not until Day Four the first Stars come into sight. Perhaps a luminescent word storm makes everything so bright. If language is a living thing, only not biological in kind, what is the meaning of life once the word "Life" is properly defined?Life is a special sort of existence. It definitely beats nothing. It is clearly better than lifeless stuff too. Good arguments from analogy compare items with a high degree of similarity. The analogs are grown in words. The substrate of the argument is language. It is all right to compare apples with oranges because both words denote material things and both are edible fruit. Comparing Minds with Brains or Time with Space are shabby analogies. Mind and Time are comparable concepts. They are only found in language, not in the evidence of the senses. That is why they are not kept in bottles. Time is nothing but a ghost in the scenery like a mind in the machinery unless at the core of a living thing is a word and in the word is life. It is a sort of life that is the light of the human race.