Consciousness: Feser on dualism by Descartes (General)

by dhw, Friday, February 05, 2021, 08:35 (1175 days ago) @ David Turell

QUOTE: “This problem does not arise for the Scholastic conception of soul and body, because, again, it does not regard them as distinct substances in the first place. A human being is one thing, not two, albeit a thing with both corporeal and incorporeal activities. And since it is one thing, the question of interaction does not arise." (dhw’s bold)

DAVID: This fits my view of soul body dualism as two interacting aspects of 'me', one material and one immaterial.

dhw: No it doesn’t. The article could hardly be more emphatic: there is NO interaction between soul and body, because a human being is ONE THING, not two! See the bolds above. This is the compromise that I have been suggesting, though I go one step further: my version is that the material brain produces immaterial thought, emotion etc. (materialism) but the product itself may be (I would emphasize “may”) a form of energy that can exist independently of its original source. Hence NDEs and other psychic experiences.

DAVID: Your interpretation is exactly what my statement says. Material body, immaterial thought which represents my soul, an energy which can become independent after death.

dhw: [...] I didn’t think your own version envisaged the “soul” as the product of the brain, but if it does, then we have agreed on this compromise.

DAVID: In my version the immaterial soul uses the material brain for thought capacity while alive. So of course there is continuous interaction.

Yes, I thought so. Exactly the opposite of the proposal put forward by the article and by my compromise.