Free Will, Consciousness, Identity (Identity)

by dhw, Wednesday, August 22, 2012, 09:43 (4258 days ago) @ David Turell

David: I'm still confused in general, but appreciate your clarification. Yes, Nahmias thinks the brain produces the mind in some manner, but a main thrust of his article is to downgrade the leap of faith from Libet's work that our biochemical/electrical processes in the brain control everything, which the atheists like Sam Harris (he mentions specifically) accept unconditionally since that concept is a marvelous support for materialistic atheism. Instead Nahmias points out our developmental backgrounds as a fertile field to color our decision-making. He specifically states the brain gears up to make decisions, and we make the decisions. Goodbye Libet, as other studies mentioned here have shown.-"WE MAKE THE DECISIONS." What you and Nahmias and so many others seem to gloss over is just what constitutes this "we", i.e. the identity/mind/soul/personality ... call it what you will. You go on to say you were taught that "personality was 40% inherited, 40% taught by family and 20% an amalgam of further experience". We needn't discuss the percentages. I'm interested only in the substance: is the identity something material or something immaterial? I really don't see how you can have an immaterial will without an immaterial identity. NDEs indicate that will, thought, emotion, memory, consciousness all function independently of the physical body. All of these are what constitute our identity. But if they are CAUSED by biochemical/electrical processes (as atheists believe) and therefore die with the body, "we" are nothing but materials, and NDEs are not to be trusted. The reduction of the will to physical processes in the brain is indeed vital to atheism, but it is no answer to say "we" make the decisions if "we" are also reducible to biochemical processes! This is what dualism denies, and I cannot see any third way: it's either materialism or dualism. Either the brain controls the mind (materialist), or the mind controls the brain (dualist). -I struggle to make sense of your suggestion that the material brain somehow creates an immaterial mind that acts independently of the material brain and controls it. But I'm no less confused than you, since I find materialism and dualism equally unconvincing! However, what really surprises me is that you are so reluctant to embrace mind/body dualism when your own faith is rooted in just such an immaterial form of will and consciousness ... namely, God.