Free Will: Egnor shows neurological proof - PART ONE (Introduction)

by David Turell , Tuesday, December 22, 2020, 18:18 (1432 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: I am not disputing that the soul must use the brain’s networks to form a thought! But the brain supplies the information, and the soul thinks about it!

Only by using the brain's networks to think and analyze the info.

dhw: The networks do not create thought, whether sick or "normal".

Agreed. Only if the soul uses them to create thought.

DAVID: My theory is pure dualism. Repeat: my soul can only think by using brain networks to actually form any thought.

Yes.

DAVID: If the networks are sick the thoughts will be distorted and the soul cannot recognize it because it uses those same circuits for all of its observations.

dhw: If the soul is capable of distinguishing true from false, then it should make no difference whether the false comes from a sick or a healthy brain, because the dualist’s brain does not analyse the information!

The soul cannot distinguish true from false if the brain is sick, as it must use the sick brain networks to make any analysis.

DAVID: You separate the soul by saying it can stand aside and observe that the brain is sick. […]

dhw: Belief that the soul is responsible for thought does not “separate” it from the brain! But just like different parts of the brain, it has its own function – namely, to do the thinking,

I will not accept this theory in bold. The soul can think only by forming thoughts actively using the brain's networks to create the thought. My living soul is myself, and I do this.

DAVID: Not yes or no. See above. The soul forms analytic thought using the brain networks to create that analysis. The child's amazing networks allowed that degree of solution.

dhw: More fudge. Once again you gloss over what the soul uses the brain for (information and material expression). The analysis of the information is done by the soul, not by the networks.

Total disagreement. The soul can only analyze using the networks.

dhw: There is no difference whatsoever, except that again you leave out the functions: here, you have the brain “broadcasting”, but you omit the soul’s instruction to the brain to “broadcast”, i.e. type, speak or write the soul’s decision. That is the “dictation”.

I agree, after the soul creates thought by using the brain's networks, it has the brain broadcast the thought in as many ways as it wishes.

DAVID: The criminal insanity defense accepts my position in court.

dhw: No it doesn’t. The criminal insanity defense argues that the accused has a mental disease – temporary (e.g. the influence of drugs or alcohol) or permanent (our psychopath). The court does not say the brain provided the soul with false results, and does not discuss whether the source of thought is a soul or the brain. However, the very fact that brain abnormalities have been found in psychopaths, and that drugs and alcohol interfere with the brain’s networks and hence the nature of the person’s thoughts, offers strong support to the materialist view that the brain is the source of thought.

The source of thought the soul creates is by using the brain's networks to actually form the thought. The psychopath's self/soul doesn't have any way of knowing right from wrong because his brain is permanently incapable of that judgement. We institutionalize, not execute, as as result.

Illness and drugs can always change the functions of the material brain. A depressed soul can be helped by using mitigating drugs to change its brain, but that is because the soul can now form normal thought with a normalized brain. The material brain cannot think without the soul using it to form thought, not dictating thought to the brain as your theory insists. Our approaches are totally different. I use my experience in my own body as a starting point. I/myself/my essence/living soul can only think by using my brain to create thought. I create the thought using my brain to form the thought. I know my brain is material, and no more, so your bold can be recognized as true, but only if it is recognized the soul used the brain's networks to form those thoughts that appear and be broadcast. Pure dualism during life with a normally functional brain.