Free Will, Consciousness, Identity (Identity)

by David Turell , Monday, August 20, 2012, 02:12 (4477 days ago) @ dhw

As it does, we will come to understand how and when we have the capacities for conscious and rational choice, and for self-control, that people ordinarily associate with free will. These are the capacities to reflect on our desires and reasons, to consider which of them we want to motivate us, and to make efforts to act accordingly[/i]."
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> This researcher categorically rejects the concept of dualism, and so I'm afraid I find his arguments incoherent. Without dualism how can you avoid the conclusion that the brain is the source of the mind, of which the will is just one part? -Please educate me: what is your definition of dualism?-I have used the Stamford Philosophical definition:
"In the philosophy of mind, dualism is the theory that the mental and the physical—or mind and body or mind and brain—are, in some sense, radically different kinds of thing. Because common sense tells us that there are physical bodies, and because there is intellectual pressure towards producing a unified view of the world, one could say that materialist monism is the 'default option'. Discussion about dualism, therefore, tends to start from the assumption of the reality of the physical world, and then to consider arguments for why the mind cannot be treated as simply part of that world." -This neurophysiologist appears to accept consciousness as an emergent property of the brain and wants to find out how the brain does this. How does that rule out dualism for him? He seems to be saying that a material brain is producing a non-material mind. Isn't that a form of dualism? And why are we beholden to dualism? Van Lommel of NDE fame thinks the brain is a radio receiver on a quantum wavelength. That is a form of dualism I guess.