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

by dhw, Sunday, December 27, 2020, 11:22 (1213 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: How can the brain give the soul a false analysis when it is the soul that does the analysing? All this confusion arises out of your refusal to accept the different FUNCTIONS of the dualist’s brain and the dualist’s soul!

DAVID: The soul can analyze only as it uses the brain's networks. If the networks are acting with sickness, the analyze will be skewed and wrong.

Same again: you agree that the dualist’s soul uses the brain as a tool to gather information. If the soul analyses true, false, indeterminate information presented by a normal brain, why can’t it do the same when the brain offers true, false, indeterminate information presented by a sick brain? If a sick brain leads to sick thoughts, the obvious inference is that the brain is the source of thought!

DAVID: […] BBBThe brain is just a tool for the soul, not an originator of any thought on its own. Pure dualism, no smidgen of materialism. What is your problem with this?

dhw: No problem, and I do wish you would stick to the bold, but you won’t and don’t. Over and over again, you have the dualist’s brain thinking – the latest and prime example being that the psychopath’s diseased brain cannot form a correct judgement […] The dualist’s brain does not form judgements! That is the role of the soul, regardless of the truth or falsity of information provided by the brain.

DAVID: Let's try to have you understand my view: I am my soul living essence. I am myself, and I reach them in my mind. Therefore the only way a thought can appear is if I think. I can only do that by using my brain and activating its networks. My brain cannot make thoughts on its own. My soul living essence has to use eth brain as its tool to create any thought. Non-functioning brain, no thought possible during life. Changed brain function by chemicals, by brain damage, or by lacking proper functioning circuits for the development of a conscience will all result in improper thought development. Summary: The brain is my tool to create thought. My sick brain will result in me having sick thoughts that I do not want to have, but I won't realize it in severe cases of sick brain (psychopath)

You keep using the pronoun “I”, which for the dualist consists of mind/soul and body/brain. By yet again glossing over the different functions of soul and brain, you manage to state obvious truths which will apply just as aptly to the materialist interpretation as to the dualist! Of course the only way a thought can appear is if you think! Of course the dualist’s soul uses the brain – to gather information and to give material expression to its thoughts – just as the thinking area of the materialist’s brain uses its information-gathering compartments and its compartments for material expression. “Non-functioning brain, no thought possible” is the whole basis of the materialist’s case. And of course the sick brain will result in sick thoughts – also implying that the brain is the source of thought. There is nothing in the above that supports the case for a soul! And this is epitomized by two of your statements: the “soul” receives “incorrect analytic thought” from the brain, and the psychopath’s brain is unable to form a correct judgement. There is no role for the soul if the brain does the analysing and the judging!

dhw: So long as you continue to insist that the sick brain provides incorrect analyses and judgements, you are supporting materialism and determinism.

DAVID: There is nothing in my above discussion to support that conclusion. No one can think normally with a sick brain, one not functioning normally. The brain is our tool for thought. Broke tool, broke thought. I don't know why you are so confused. It must be previous wrong impressions you can't shake.

The statement that no one can think normally with a sick brain summarizes the case for materialism. The “broke” brain or thinking mechanism – whether psychopathic, epileptic, drugged or drunk – cannot think properly. I don’t know why you are so confused. It must be because you cannot shake your belief that the soul exists. You may be right. Psychic experiences support your belief. But diseased brains don’t.