To better clarify myself. Ideas are not separate "entities" floating around. Otherwise, I may as well go back to church. Ideas are dependent upon functions of the brain, but the idea cannot be manipulated separately by matter like a chisel to a rock. (That's what I meant by it doesn't interact with matter or it being abstract. It's the result of brain functions.) My goodness, this is difficult to explain.

I agree that it isn't a dichotomy. Was it my poorly communicated first line that led you to believe this? Until an idea is acted upon by manipulating objects in the environment, the idea still remains in the brain as a thought - in abstract form. (as opposed to concrete as a physical object.) By sharing this thought through communication it is replicated. I know you're face palming right now. I'm not sure there is a literal replication since ideas cannot make copies of itself. Ideas are not themselves material.

I'd continue but somehow I think we are on different pages speaking different languages. Interesting ideas though.