Consciousness: Egnor on dualism: another example (General)

by David Turell , Tuesday, August 07, 2018, 17:44 (2298 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: Once again you miss the point you've made: You are your soul, and if you in life use your brain to think, so does your soul. And then certainly a sick brain will produce sick thoughts for both you and your soul. The case you make for materialism simply recognizes that the brain is material. Dualism looks at the source of the immaterial output from the brain.

dhw: Yet again you are conflating the two issues. I am not making a case for materialism. I am pointing out that if the brain is the source of thought (as in “a sick brain produces sick thoughts”), you have materialism. You have even confirmed this with your extraordinary last statement: if the immaterial output from the brain is thought, then the brain is the source of thought! And if the brain produces thought, you have materialism. I don’t know what you mean by “dualism looks at…” Dualism claims that the self consists of soul and brain, instead of just brain. If the brain produces thought, what does the soul do? Look at the thoughts the brain has produced?

DAVID: All you are stating is there is a material part to the dualism problem. Simple progression of fact: Please remember you are your soul.

dhw: That is not what I am stating! Despite the heading you gave to this thread, the article is anything but an example of dualism. Show me where it tells us to remember that we are our soul! It offers nothing but evidence for materialism. And your comments do the same. If you argue that the brain is the source of thought, and a sick brain produces sick thoughts, you are arguing the case for materialism. Once again, this is not a discussion about the meaning of dualism. I have simply pointed out that the article provides evidence that the brain is the source of thought, and this supports the case for materialism.

Once again, you and I think with our brains. We know that. We know that thought is immaterial. No one knows how the electricity in the brain which is material turns into immaterial thought. By the way Egnor believes in a soul, which is why I titled this thread as I did. I am the source of thought I produce by using my brain which represents the thought as electricity. No thought without the electricity.