Consciousness: Egnor on dualism: another example (General)

by David Turell , Friday, August 10, 2018, 15:10 (2085 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: Egnor, a religious neurosurgeon, believes the soul creates consciousness and even covers over loss of brain tissue in his ablative neurosurgery. He doesn't discuss the role of the electric networks and their contribution.
https://mindmatters.today/2018/08/the-brain-is-not-a-meat-computer/

QUOTE: "The materialist view that the brain as a computer made of meat and that the mind is the software run on this carnal machine is a profound misunderstanding of neurology and of the relationship between the mind and the brain."

dhw: Now that IS Egnor on dualism. But we shouldn’t forget the materialist article you quoted initially as if it were an example of dualism. The two together exemplify the two different schools of thought. And there is no consensus on which is correct.

DAVID: I'd love to know what he thinks of the electricity. i had the same med school training he had.

dhw: Our discussions under THEORY OF INTELLIGENCE bring out the utter confusion when you attempt to reconcile your belief in an immaterial soul with the materialism arising from your medical training. If only you would recognize this dichotomy, you would not have to keep coming up with all the different theories which you then have to discard.

I have no idea why Egnor avoids the subject of electricity (I'll take your word for it that he does), but if he believes in a conscious immaterial soul, what alternative is there to the explanation that the soul’s thoughts spark the electricity, as opposed to the materialist explanation that the electricity sparks the thoughts? I doubt if he would subscribe to your translation theory, which tried to have it both ways!

I think the desire to think initiates thought as new original electrical activity in the brain. The electricity does not spark the thought, it appears as a representation of thought. The point is to answer this question: in the presence of any thought why is there a new wave of electricity? For my view the soul/I are initiators of the electricity and the soul provides the conscious interpretation of the electricity as it appears in the brain. A longer version of I/soul think by using my brain.