6Nov/0912
Lego
by Jeff
Image text: Dad, where is Grandpa right now?
This comic looks to be, first and foremost, in support of the scientific view of the human body and its internal organs. This comic is comparing a lego house to a person. The arrangement of parts doesn't stay with the person and they are just pieces. Which, fast forwarding to later in life at the bottom 3 frames of the comic, causes the kid to select "Organ Donor" on her drivers license.
And the answer to the image text according to the comic would be: Grandpa doesn't stay with his body parts and doesn't go anywhere else, he's just gone...
November 6th, 2009
But, like the Lego house, Grandpa lives on in the memories of those who knew him. And in the pictures that were taken, and the stories that unfolded.
Unlike the Lego house, you cannot take a bunch of random parts and reconstruct grandpa.
November 6th, 2009
But even if you reconstruct the Lego house with all the same bricks, is it the same house?
November 6th, 2009
Sure. If they use the same parts and are arranged in the same order. The only way to distinguish the two would be their existence in time. Not so with grandpa.
Look at it another way. Every atom of your body gets replaced every decade or so due to natural processes. Essentially, there is nothing in your body that you can claim belongs to you. Yet *you* remain constant.
So what are you? Are you your memories? No, those change. Are you the configuration of your body? No that changes. Are you your thoughts? No those change. Every single material thing about you changes, yet *you* still remain. This strongly implies that the *you* that doesn’t change cannot be material. In other words, *you* are that part of the composite person you think yourself to be that doesn’t change. For the sake of simplicity, let’s call this entity a soul.
So what are the properties of a soul? Memories? Well there’s Alzheimers….. Rationality? Well there’s drugs….. Consciousness? Sound’s possible — material items aren’t conscious. Subrational intuition? Serles Chinese Room definitely and our ability to solve some NP complete problems quickly with intuition points to a definite possibility.
November 21st, 2009
It’s a great cartoon. But saying that the house “doesn’t go anywhere else” is quite different from saying that a human being “doesn’t go anywhere else,” so Jeff’s inference exceeds the bounds of Randall’s cartoon: The first concept in the cartoon (lego house) is just a conceptualization paradox associated with saying a conglomerate or assembly is something in its own, and who’s meaning is based in its functional purpose and not in its assemblage. The second concept (organ donation) simply means that the girl understands that one’s body is useless to them if they are “gone.” Donating the hardware is not a big deal if the software you need to run can’t run on it anymore.
Randall isn’t saying anything about the person herself “doesn’t go anywhere – he’s just gone” (Jeff). Rather because of the boundaries of the metaphor the adult is explaining, along with the issues with simplifying things for a kid (so they can understand the idea in its most abstract way), “just gone” can mean “gone to Heaven” just as easily as it can mean ‘vanished into oblivion.’ While Randall’s cartoon is largely agnostic on the matter and confines itself to discussing just the parts, Jeff’s comment is a largely atheistic conjecture – one that assumes that human beings are based in, associated with, or else trapped in their legos.
November 22nd, 2009
I’m not so sure about that…the phrasing that ‘the arrangement’ “doesn’t go anywhere else. It’s just gone.” sounds decidedly materialist. He’s describing the arrangement, not the body – the body is in the bin. A more spiritual expression would be something like the arrangement isn’t physical or bound to the physical, merely perceived by the physical, and something (like you said) about how it lives on in others.
February 6th, 2010
I agree with Aves. Randall’s comic doesn’t _specifically_ say that Grandpa is gone, but it’s strongly implied. Such a view would not exactly clash with what Randall seems to believe otherwise. I don’t think Jeff read an unintended materialist slant into the comic.
January 19th, 2010
Grandpa’s a house now. duh
February 21st, 2010
this might be refrencing a book called sophies world, a philisophical novel that dedicats one chapter to this exact same comparison.
May 15th, 2010
Aw, this was a really quality post. In theory I’d like to write like this too – taking time and real effort to make a good article… but what can I say… I procrastinate alot and never seem to get something done.
May 15th, 2010
Spacious possessions as usual…
May 18th, 2010
Took me time to read all the comments, but I really enjoyed the article. It proved to be Very helpful to me and I am sure to all the commenters here! It’s always nice when you can not only be informed, but also entertained! I’m sure you had fun writing this article.
May 29th, 2010
You post awsome articles. Bookmarked !