Human Consciousness: Penrose: soul survives! (Humans)

by dhw, Thursday, November 10, 2016, 13:09 (2934 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: ...true materialism does not explain consciousness while dualism appears to by including materialism on one side of its duality.

dhw: We are all wrestling with very complex matters here. However, I don’t think either dualism or materialism explains consciousness. Materialism claims that materials must be the source of consciousness, and dualism claims that consciousness is independent of materials. “True” dualism, in my view, can only lead back to some sort of God, but even that is not an explanation – it’s merely a statement: that consciousness has always existed as the first cause.

DAVID: That is the only answer. Consciousness is the appearance of an inorganic universe inventing a way to study itself! First life ( against all odds) then introspective consciousness appears. All by chance. Consciousness first is the only reasonable conclusion.

That was not the point I was answering. You said that dualism appeared to explain consciousness. Nothing explains consciousness. Your belief in a universal, eternal consciousness does not EXPLAIN consciousness: it merely tells us that consciousness was always there. My comment was only meant as a minor, slightly pedantic correction to detail!