Consciousness: Egnor on dualism: another example (General)

by David Turell , Saturday, September 01, 2018, 15:45 (2273 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: If the soul exists, I accept that the soul uses the brain. I simply cannot see any logic in the idea that the soul doesn’t think in words until its thoughts have been translated into brain waves which it then translates back into the words it already knows. However, if you think this is logical, we shall indeed have to move on.

DAVID: You jumped right in with singular form of a soul from the beginning. Of course it contradicts me. […] As I progressed from birth I learned words which are in the memory bank of my brain. When I think I must use the memory bank and must use electricity to do it. Don't you think my soul is in the same boat, or as you imply, the soul has its own memory bank for words? My theory starts on the material side. I don't think yours does.

dhw: Until now you have complained that my theory starts with the material side! I suggested (theistic version) that your God created a material mechanism that produced conscious thought and might even produce a soul. But what you have written here illustrates the dichotomy between materialism and dualism that both of us are trying to resolve. Materialists will tell you that there is no soul, the brain learns words, the brain has its memory bank, the brain thinks in those words, and the brain gives material expression to its thoughts, and it all works through electricity. That’s it. But you believe in a soul, and at the same time you believe in “the material side”, and so you try to work out a role for the soul, and this is what leads to all the illogical convolutions of your translation theory, as summarized above. But if you really think it is logical for an English-speaking soul to have to translate its own thoughts into English via the brain’s electric waves although the brain is NOT the source of the thought, we shall have to move on.

Lots of words but no answer to my question above. It is obvious the words I learn from birth are in a memory portion of the brain represented by electrical activity. When I think I find those words in the brain. When my soul thinks during life where do the words come from to be used? Does the soul rely on the memories in the brain or have its own memory bank? And if the soul uses words stored in the brain it can translate electricity like I do, although I don't know how it happens And yes, I'm trying to combine the material and the immaterial in a reasonable way, especially accounting for how we find the brain working for us in life. I don't have to 'believe in "the material side". It exists! I am my soul. We can only work together as one. And we must use the brain in the same way with its electricity.