Free Will: Egnor shows neurological proof (Introduction)

by dhw, Sunday, December 06, 2020, 13:24 (1237 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: In a seizure, once the abnormal electrical impulses have stopped messing with the brain, the patient can think normally again. Yes or no? The clear conclusion must therefore be that just like the rest of the body, the thinking brain resumes normal service once the abnormality has been removed. But if the soul is responsible for abstract thinking, please tell me why, if a non-reasoning brain is sick, the soul is unable to reason.

DAVID: Same point: a soul must work with the brain. Sick brain, sick thoughts. They are tied together in life.

You are avoiding both my questions! Yes, the dualist’s soul and brain are tied together in life because the soul works with the brain by using it for information and for implementation of its thoughts, but it is the SOUL that does the thinking. Even under normal circumstances, if the brain is deceived by some trickery and sends false information to the soul (the lady was sawn in half but came out whole), the dualist’s soul will process the information sent by the brain, in order to test it. So 1) why is the soul incapable of thinking about the false information provided by the sick brain? 2) Why is it that when the brain is cured of its sickness, normal reasoning returns?

DAVID: Because in life the soul MUST use brain circuits to create any thought. In a grand mal seizure the brain is not incapacitated. All the muscles are thrashing about from electrical impulses hitting motor areas. But the conceptual area produces nothing, when it obviously could if it had anything it could produce.

In grand mal seizures, the patient is unconscious, but according to dualism, consciousness is a property of the soul, not the brain. The soul processes and thinks about the information provided by the brain, and the soul makes decisions, and the brain implements them through its control of the body. The loss of consciousness in a grand mal seizure only makes sense if the sick brain is the source of consciousness! When the brain returns to normal, consciousness returns!

dhw: […] a dualist cannot talk of a conscious brain. That is the materialist’s view.

DAVID: A dualist knows a brain can't think if unconscious. What is your point?

A dualist believes that a brain can’t think anyway, and consciousness is a property of the soul, not the brain! It is the dualist’s soul that does the thinking. So yet again, if the soul is the source of consciousness, why does it lose consciousness when the brain shuts down? The obvious answer is that it is NOT the source of consciousness, and hence is NOT the source of abstract thought and decision-making!

DAVID: No concepts appear while the brain is driven by abnormal electrical impulses, and the soul is not acting.

And that is the crux of the matter. If the immaterial soul does the thinking, why is it NOT thinking about the false information being delivered by the brain during a seizure? Why should thinking cease when the brain is sick?

DAVID: Seizures are only produced by an abnormal electrical focus in the brain. The soul is not involved.

You keep reinforcing the argument AGAINST dualism (which is fine, except that you think you are supporting dualism). If the conscious, thinking soul is not involved when an abnormal electrical focus takes place in the brain, why does it stop thinking?

DAVID: In NDE's the cortex is non-functional, that is transiently dead, and the soul is free to think on its own.

In a grand mal seizure, the patient is unconscious. The cortex is non-functional, that is transiently dead. So why can’t the soul think?