How to think like a materialist

Materialists think in term of concrete things. Platonists think also in terms of abstractions (nonmaterial things).

Examples:

This from a recent Google+ post:

Is physics truth, metaphor, or less? David Tong, Hilary Lawson, and Lev Vaidman debate.
<iai.tv/video/uncovering-reality>
(<plus.google.com/118265897954929480050/posts/jAJgaYGPUka>)

My materialist answer:

Physics is some math expressions written in LaTeX and put into journal articles.

On whether the "mind" is a "computer":

When they say "the mind isn't doing computation like a computer", I think are using the word "computation" in an abstract sense (e.g., as "symbol manipulation"). Because in that sense, computers aren't doing computation either! All computers do is push elections around from disks and memory chips, etc. through SoC circuits back out to memory chips and out onto wireless signals, fiber optic cables, and LED displays and so forth. We only imagine they are doing "computation" (in that sense). The point is that at some level neither the brain nor computer is doing "symbol manipulation".


I think platonism clutters thinking. Assuming we live in a natural world without supernatural things, materialism should suffice.


posted to Atoms and the Void (Google Groups)


see also <huffingtonpost.com/victor-stenger/materialism-deconstructed_b_2228362.html>