Thomson Line

Famous quotes containing the words thomson and/or line:

    The savage soul of game is up at once—
    The pack full-opening various, the shrill horn
    Resounded from the hills, the neighing steed
    Wild for the chase, and the loud hunter’s shout—
    O’er a weak, harmless, flying creature, all
    Mixed in mad tumult and discordant joy.
    —James Thomson (1700–1748)

    The line that I am urging as today’s conventional wisdom is not a denial of consciousness. It is often called, with more reason, a repudiation of mind. It is indeed a repudiation of mind as a second substance, over and above body. It can be described less harshly as an identification of mind with some of the faculties, states, and activities of the body. Mental states and events are a special subclass of the states and events of the human or animal body.
    Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)