[FRIAM] the arc of socioeconomics, personal and public: was VPN server

[┣glen┫]

On 04/22/2017 04:41 PM, Frank Wimberly wrote:
> I have a "mental map" of the streets of Santa Fe.  I can plan a route to the dump, or even alternative routes, which I can then successfully follow.  Model or figment?

If you believe that "mental map" is _purely_ mental, then it's a figment.  Perhaps you are capable of defining "mental" in such a way that it's a useful word.  But my guess is that you can't. ... because nobody can.  The word "mental" is useless.  It may have been useful in the past, of course.  So, perhaps if we were talking about, eg, what a 19th century philosopher or historian meant by the term, then it would be useful.  But today, with all we know about the brain, the words "mental" and "mind" raise more questions than they answer.

Now, if you said you have a conceptual map, where the various concepts inside your body relate to each other in an equivalent way to how actual streets in Santa Fe relate to each other, then yes it's a model.  But calling it a "mental model" destroys your point, defeats your purpose.  It forces me to ask "What do you really, specifically, mean by 'mental'?"

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␦glen?