Dualism (Identity)

by David Turell , Saturday, May 02, 2020, 22:21 (1665 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: My view of the soul is that it must use the brain it owns to think. The more complex the brain neuronal network, the more complex the concepts.

dhw: But you refuse to tell us HOW the soul uses the brain! Do you disagree that it uses the brain to acquire information and to give material form to its thoughts? In what other way does it use the brain?

I don't refuse. I've told you. It obviously uses the brain neuronal networks to access memory, develop thought during life, but thinks on its own after death

dhw: Crucial to your belief in dualism is the subject of NDEs, when the brain is supposed to be dead but the soul not only observes but also enters a new world, perceives, communicates, remembers, reacts, and THINKS.

DAVID: Don't confuse death with life. In life the soul fuses with the brain and uses it. In death the soul is free of the body and can as you say: " perceives, communicates, remembers, reacts, and THINKS". As I use my theory in dualism, the soul changes roles in life and death.

dhw: Same problem for you as a dualist. In life it needs the brain to gather information about the material world and to give material expression to its thoughts. What other uses does the soul make of the brain in life? Of course it would change roles if it didn’t have a body and a material world to deal with. That doesn’t alter the fact that it doesn’t need the brain to do its thinking.

My dualism is my dualism not yours. You constantly try to covert me to your thoughts about your concepts of dualism. We've done all this a while ago. It's memories are stored in the brain and it uses brain networks to create thought

DAVID: Why must you impose your confusion about dualism on my theory?

dhw: An extraordinary question. You keep accidentally telling us that the brain does the thinking when you mean the soul does the thinking, and when I correct you, you come up with the nebulous proposal that the soul “uses the brain to think”. I agree, and have explained how it does so.

You just don't think clearly about what I have written. You explanation of what I mean are your theory, not mine. My 'accidentally' is my mental shorthand. You have the capacity to remember my shorthand for my theory.

dhw: You disagree, but you won’t answer the question HOW ELSE it uses the brain. The confusion is hardly resolved by telling us that the soul can’t think without the brain except when the brain is dead. You then confused the issue still further by bringing in “I” as if it were separate from both the soul and the brain. I have tried to remove that source of confusion as well.

Once again your confusion. My soul uses my brain networks to access memory, develop new information, and create immaterial complex concepts and designs. When I am alive I conceive of my soul as my essence, and using my brain as I feel myself do. My soul/essence, after my death, will do all of that on its own, no physical brain needed. What have I left out?