Language and philosophy
I was practicing Chinese with some Chinese friends and accidentally got them into an argument. As it turns out, the mind-body duality is built into Chinese; you cannot, in correct Chinese, refer to the mind as merely the activity of the brain. You can say the mind and brain are separate, and you can say the brain gives rise to the mind, but it’s pretty hard to say the mind and brain are the same. Or at least that’s what four Chinese people argued about. A Chinese can believe that the mind is merely the activity of the brain if they made a determined effort, sort of like how I have to explain to people that my feelings about women who are my friends verse women who are my girlfriends are a sliding scale rather than a hard and fast division in a round about way because English assumes either/or or like/love.
We had a fun conversation and a new dining experience, but all five of us are leaving Chongqing either for work or graduate school, so it was probably the last time all of us would get together at the same time. It reminded me a little of when I lived in Sioux City; all my close friends there wanted to get out of there. It was our favorite topic of conversation. I did, two others did but one moved back because he broke up with the other, and two, as far as I know, stayed. Except all these friends here really are moving on with their lives.
We had a fun conversation and a new dining experience, but all five of us are leaving Chongqing either for work or graduate school, so it was probably the last time all of us would get together at the same time. It reminded me a little of when I lived in Sioux City; all my close friends there wanted to get out of there. It was our favorite topic of conversation. I did, two others did but one moved back because he broke up with the other, and two, as far as I know, stayed. Except all these friends here really are moving on with their lives.