Mind-Brain Dualism
January 14th, 2010 | 
Author: 
Some thoughts about dualism (and they are just some thoughts with recommendations to expert opinions) in response to a video by and a exchange of text comments I had with LegoDesi.
If you get an error message when trying to view the video, either hit the “HQ” button or, if that doesn’t work, try adding &fmt=18 to the URL for the video. One or the other usually solves the problem — whatever the problem is. Hello, YouTube, maybe this could be fixed?!
Links:
LegoDesi’s “QualiaSoup’s video lacks substance”–
QualiaSoup’s “Substance Dualism”–
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsPn5dXfTvA
SisyphusRedeemed’s video on mind-body dualism-
My “What is God?” video–
Also, Nykytine2, a favorite YouTuber of mine, did a nice video on this topic a while back:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O05wZCVcbeY&NR=1
Music: “Anybody Seen My Mind?” by Michael Franti
Duration : 0:5:12
Posted in Mind Body Spirit | 
Tags: agnostic, Atheist, Body, Brain, Christ, Christian, coherent, Descartes, dualism, emergent, event, evidence, faith, function, ghost, god, Hobbes, human, immaterial, Jesus, Legodesi, Leibniz, material, matter, mental, Mind, Nature, negative, Occam's, philosophy, physical, positive, psychological, QualiaSoup, Razor, reason, simplicity, SisyphusRedeemed, spirit, state, substance, theist, value, yt:stretch=16:9
Dualism might not …
Dualism might not be coherent (it doesn’t seem that it is), but your explanations are! thanks!
@purplejugnut
…
@purplejugnut
lol Well, you’re very nice — prone to drastic overstatement, but very nice nevertheless.
“it’s wind!!!!”
…
“it’s wind!!!!”
LOL.
its wind!!!!!
its wind!!!!!
well said! well …
well said! well spoken! Bravo!
your rhetorical powers are such that i wonder why mere mortals even attempt to enter your realm.
@stagism
I wish …
@stagism
I wish I knew what the problem is, Stagism.
For some reason …
For some reason this video won’t play: it loads but doesn’t play.
Three days of trying to get it to load and still nothing. ):
“That is a …
“That is a signature attribute of pseudoscience, religion, and other dogmas.”
Indeed. Thanks a lot, Evid3nc3.
Good defense. I …
Good defense. I especially like the point about substance dualism raising questions but providing no answers.
That is a signature attribute of pseudoscience, religion, and other dogmas.
@HonestDiscussioner …
@HonestDiscussioner
Indeed. Thanks a lot, HD.
« Everyone seems …
« Everyone seems full of resentment »
True. It must be a full moon, or everybody’s having their period, I don’t know. However, philosophers and scientists have been unable to begin to describe what awareness is, let alone figure out how it works exactly. No wonder, since awareness is by definition completely subjective. At most we’ll be able to model specific behavioral characteristics, I guess.
*won’t* …
*won’t* Malapropisms are common with me.
Perhaps I’m just …
Perhaps I’m just curious as to the author’s opinion. He seemed like a guy that might have a worthwhile opinion, but I’m not going to throw a fit or question his intellectual integrity if he doesn’t respond. Why everyone is strung so tight is beyond me, really. Everyone seems full of resentment.
I’m not telling …
I’m not telling anyone what to do. Essentially, I said, “So how do you respond to the weaknesses of materialist reduction?” If the author of the video rather spend his time otherwise and choose not to honor this request, I want be offended or spout moral platitudes.
“…I think very …
“…I think very few, if any people have comprehended it, but still, it doesn’t make any sense at all to me that consciousness can simply be a product of the brain to me…”
argumentum ad ignorantiam
“Actually, we know …
“Actually, we know very little about how the whole brain works yet.”
*YOU* know very little about how the whole brain works yet. *I* have 3 posters on my wall detailing complete receptor systems in the human brain.
Very well said. …
Very well said. While I’d love for there to be an eternal entity “tethered to my brain” that comprises who and what I am, there doesn’t seem to be any room to posit that given what we know about the mind.
Video not working …
Video not working for me
« so it is fair to …
« so it is fair to ask you to explain qualitative, subjective experience »
There’s no single, comprehensive scientific theory explaining the nature of subjective awareness that I know of. But since so far specific facets of the human mind *can* be explained satisfactory in terms of physical processes, why make such a request unless you *do* have a solid model involving non-physical processes that explain awareness?
« Like I said, no, …
« Like I said, no, and very few, if anyone, can »
So the model, while lacking real definitions, lacks testability?
“I don’t know how …
“I don’t know how to make videos.”
Then don’t go around telling other people what videos to make.
“Just because it …
“Just because it raises other questions, doesn’t mean it can’t be right.”
I didn’t say it did. What I said was that it lacks any additional explanatory power. It explains nothing about the brain/mind that isn’t already coherently explained without resorting to dualism.
I can think of …
I can think of other possible scenarios in how dualism could work, however they are all pointless speculation and imagination so long as they dont provide a way to test for how they interact with the human brain to create a dualistic mind.
Wait — you don’t …
Wait — you don’t think the brain generates awareness? Really?
Science may not claim to have all of the answers about consciousness, but that doesn’t allow you to substitute any magical woo in its stead.
No kidding, one needs to keep an open mind, but not so far open so that your brain falls out.
Cuz that’s where your consciousness is.
Yay, able to view …
Yay, able to view it all the way through this time.
Well done, ProfMTH.
Other side doing a lot of hand-waving and engaging in rhetorical nonsense, as QS pointed out. “Ghost in the Machine”…