[MD] Kant's Motorcycle

[Case]

Case said to Micah:
No, you are confusing sensation and perception. Sensations are just neurons 
firing. Perception is the organization of these impulses into thoughts and 
knowledge. Kant was saying that something in our nature contributes to this 
process of knowledge formation.

dmb says:
Besides the fact that this picture is predicated on SOM assumptions, the 
categories of thought which determine the process of knowledge formation can

no longer be imagined in terms of anantomy but rather in terms of language 
and culture. The shape of reality is determined by our conventional 
concepts, which are natural, but not in the sense that brains and fingers 
are natural. The rate of biological evolution is such that anatomical 
features are practially constant. But cultural evolution is far more rapid 
and the shape of reality changes even in historic time. I mean, the 
categories of the mind evolve as fast as the language and culture so that 
they are something like identical.

[Case]
Sensation is purely anatomical. The processing of sensations is purely
biological. There are specific regions of the brain associated with
language. The shape of reality is formed by the interaction of our biology
with our environment. That is what experience is.

We are endowed with a physiology that is sufficiently plastic to allow all
sorts of connections and organizational schemes. Culture and the specific
forms of language emerge out of this plasticity. So I agree that on the
whole categories of mind are not strictly anatomical but they do reside in
and depend on anatomy. I am also intrigued by the idea that certain
categories of mind like Kant's, space and time or Jung's, hero, wise man and
earth mother seem to resonate in the human anatomy producing similar
patterns of thought across time and culture. This seems a bit like language
which has a similar structure and function but diverse manifestations within
our species.