Tag Archives: dualism

Why Are There No Molecule/Water Dualists?

The question. I had a question pop into my head yesterday morning: Why are there no molecule/water dualists in the same way that there are brain/mind dualists? The obvious answer: Because there is nothing at stake religiously. We all presume … Continue reading

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Consciousness Explained: Spatial Awareness, Time Awareness, Self Awareness, Death Awareness, and Free Will

Below is an excellent BBC documentary on the self and free will. I especially like what Gordon Gallup says at the 11:48 mark: Death awareness is the price we pay for self awareness. If you only have time for a … Continue reading

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The self-made soul? Do you make a soul as an author makes a novel, one moment of awareness at a time?

I’m not sure what, exactly, the soul is (“I am that I am?”), but I do think I’m closing in, at least for myself, on what the soul does. Here’s the theory I’m working with. Please help me refine it if you think I’m missing something … Continue reading

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David Chalmers on Hard v. Soft Emergence with Regard to Consciousness

David Chalmers discusses hard v. soft emergence and why consciousness falls into the former category:

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Monism, free will, and atheist cognitive dissonance

Imagine an atheist who believes—against religious dualism—that there is one world, not two, and that it runs on determinate physics (or on perfect quantum probabilistic randomness, which amounts to the same thing). Now also imagine that he (or she) believes in free … Continue reading

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Denyse O’Leary on the Signal and the Set (the Mind and the Brain)

I see that Denyse O’Leary, the co-author of The Spiritual Brain (a book I recommend), has a blog. Here she is offering a non-reductionist analogy for the mind’s relationship to the brain (it might be like a television signal in relation to a television set):  Non-materialist neuroscience, … Continue reading

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Promissory Materialism and Second Coming Messianism?

This struck me as a provocative way to frame materialism v. dualism. It comes from a 2003 paper in NeuroQuantology, and it was written by Donald Watson and Bernard Wilson: The “psychophysical identity” proposition is today’s most popular model for … Continue reading

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Bertand Russell on the Mind and Body Problem

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John Searle Wants Us to Reject Both Materialism and Dualism with Regard to the Mind

John Searle splits the difference by saying that consciousness is, in relation to matter, “ontologically irreducible but causally reducible.” Here’s parts 1 and 2 of a longer talk. If you don’t want to hear the biographical introduction to Searle, you … Continue reading

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Is Dualism Still in Play? Australian Philosopher David Chalmers on the Relation of Mind to Matter

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