Different in degree or kind: EVOLUTION (Introduction)

by dhw, Thursday, January 01, 2015, 13:44 (3402 days ago) @ David Turell

This discussion links up with the very interesting one you are having with Tony, but I'm heading in a different direction, so I've added the EVOLUTION tag to keep them separate. If you intend to pursue the discussion on the nature of the soul, perhaps you could add the tag SOUL?-TORLEY: “The unity of a human being's actions is actually deeper and stronger than that underlying the acts of a non-rational animal...” 
DHW: If we are animals whose souls have a deeper, stronger “unity” than those of our fellow animals, it sounds as if he's talking about difference in degree, not kind. May I assume you believe that animals have souls?-David: Yes, animals in the Jewish religion have souls.-All the more reason for “degree” rather than “kind.”-Dhw: Are you a substance dualist (= the mind/soul is separate from the body/brain and can exist independently of it) or a property dualist (= mind/soul and body/brain are one, though they produce two “properties” - mental and physical)? The latter precludes survival of the “soul” after death.-DAVID: I am a substance dualist. [...] The Jewish religion depicts the human soul at a much higher plane than the animal soul, simple versus very complex. And I believe in an afterlife.-A “much higher plane” clearly indicates degree and not kind. If the human soul is separate from the human body, and is responsible for thought, it seems only logical to assume that the souls of all other organisms are also separate and responsible for their particular forms of thought. This would be what you call a “pattern”. Perhaps then, just for the moment we could forget about humans, and confine ourselves to other organisms. Two questions: -1) Do you believe ALL organisms have souls, and if not, where do souls start to appear?-2) Do you believe there are gradations of soul complexity among other organisms, e.g. from a chimpanzee to a duck to a worm to a bacterium (or wherever you think souls start to appear)? -You will probably guess what questions are coming next, but we should take this exploration one step at a time!