Consciousness: reviewing Descartes on mind and body (General)

by dhw, Friday, August 16, 2019, 08:42 (5 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: There is little point in hammering home the logic that if the mind is immaterial, it follows that it can be separated from the body. The same logic applies to the argument that if it is material, it cannot be separated from the body. And the fact is that there is evidence for both premises, but no conclusive evidence for either, and so nobody knows which one is true.

DAVID: My thoughts are never material, but this comment of yours implies they are.

dhw: Of course it doesn’t! I don’t know of anyone who claims that thought is material! I have simply put both sides of the case. Immaterial thought is produced either by an immaterial mind (dualism) or by the material brain (materialism).

DAVID: I'll stick with the NDE evidence.

dhw: That is your right. I’ll stay on the fence, although in my THEORY OF INTELLIGENCE I did try to find a compromise.

DAVID: It all depends on whether you accept the receiver concept. But I see you do consider it although downplaying NDE evidence.

I do not “downplay” NDE evidence – but I give it equal ranking to the evidence that the brain is the source of consciousness. That is why I continue to sit on my fence. It is those with fixed beliefs who downplay the evidence presented by the opposition.