Introducing the brain (Introduction)

by dhw, Sunday, June 10, 2018, 10:59 (2147 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: […] I see the soul in two forms for thinking. One is life using the brain and a different one in death.
dhw: How does a piece of your God’s consciousness have two different FORMS? Your version above is exactly the same as mine: the SAME thinking soul uses the brain in life to receive information, analyze it and “order responses”, i.e. express or implement its thoughts. In death (if it survives), it must use different (psychic) methods for receiving information and expressing/implementing its thoughts.
DAVID: A good analogy is the AM/FM radio. Two methods of receiving information, and the person listening is the same person.

Do we need an analogy? We agree that if the soul survives the death of the body, it will need different, psychic means of observing (receiving information) and communicating.

dhw: […] The “static” element of the soul is that it is the same thinking, feeling, remembering “you” in both realms. Of course in death it’s not interlocked with the brain which no longer exists, and so the mechanism that changes is that of observation and expression, but not of THINKING.

DAVID: You don't seem to realize that in life you imagine a separate soul entity dictating to various parts of the frontal lobe of the brain without using it to create thought. I am my soul, and I can reach it only through my brain networks and I (soul) create my own thoughts at will with those networks. In death my soul survives and operates by the different methods you enumerate above.

On Saturday 9 June you don’t seem to realize that dualism entails TWO entities that work together in making “you”: your mind (soul) and your body (brain). On Wednesday June 6, however, you wrote: “I view dualism as requiring a separate consciousness mechanism which is malleable and operates by a different form in life and death.” And on Friday June 8 you confirmed: “Of course it is a separate quantum mechanism interlocked with the brain…” Dualists like yourself normally believe that the two entities perform different FUNCTIONS in life, the soul being a “separate consciousness mechanism” which works with your body (brain), using the information your body supplies, and using the body (brain) to express or implement your thoughts. In death this same “separate consciousness mechanism” – your soul which has created the thoughts – survives and continues to create its thoughts, but now uses different methods (“operates by a different form”) to acquire information and to express/implement those thoughts. In life and in death the dualist’s soul remains the same “you”, performing the same function of thinking, feeling, remembering etc. That is the “static” element – you remain you.

However, I should repeat that our disagreement here concerns the nature of what we might call “pure” dualism. I am not defending or attacking this concept. The theory I have proposed is an attempt to reconcile the two apparently contradictory approaches of materialism and dualism. It was all sparked off by your insistence that new THOUGHTS depend on the enlargement of the brain (materialism), which is a direct contradiction of your dualistic belief in an immaterial soul which continues to think even when there is no brain.