Consciousness: Egnor on dualism (General)

by David Turell , Tuesday, November 28, 2017, 15:34 (142 days ago) @ dhw

QUOTE: "The evidence for dualism, and specifically for Thomistic dualism, is abundant in neuroscience. We are composites of material powers and immaterial powers. In the traditional way of understanding man, we are composites of matter and spirit, and we bridge the gap between the two realms of nature."

DAVID's comment: Egnor says dualism is real. Read the whole essay.

dhw: A very interesting essay, and I doubt if even a materialist would disagree with the distinction between material and immaterial powers. The question is not what we can do, but what is the SOURCE of what we can do. However, before passing any further comment, I need your professional expertise. It’s clear from the pictures that there are areas of the brain the twins do NOT share, whereas the article only dwells on those they do. I’d be grateful if you would tell us exactly which parts of the brain they do NOT share, and what functions those parts are normally associated with.

Basically they share some sensory and motor controls, but there seems to be some prefrontal connection since they appear at times to read each others thoughts. And they share some posterior cortical information (vision). All of this seems quite clear to Egnor, short of doing an autopsy. The key to his discussion is that they are clearly separate personalities despite the connectivity. This would mean the way they speak and express their thoughts are separate. Speech is in a middle area of the cortex as is the motor control strip. There is no 'exactly' that I can give you. What is it you want and why?