A THEORY OF INTELLIGENCE Part Two; addendum (Identity)

by David Turell , Tuesday, July 24, 2018, 18:27 (2101 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: You are unrealistic. In life I know I think with my brain. That is the material side of dualism. But I am my soul and if I think with my brain my soul (an immaterial twin image of me) does also.

You are your soul, and so if your soul thinks with your brain, your soul thinks with your brain, but that is an “if”, and you have just said that it is your brain that creates the thoughts. So it is not your soul.

I did not say my brain creates thoughts on its own. I/soul use my brain to create thoughts, and you know it.

dhw: Dualism quite simply divides your self into body/brain and soul. Not into your body/brain and you and a twin image of “you” which is you. There is no need for all this twisting and turning. You have stated explicitly that it is the brain that creates thought. That’s fine. You have espoused materialism.

You keep using your definition of dualism to accuse me of materialism. I/soul use my brain to create thoughts, and you know it.

DAVID: Once again you are separating yourself from your soul. My soul is me. Dualism = two things (soul/me and brain/body). My soul is the God-given mechanism that creates consciousness from electrical activity and is my immaterial image that enters the afterlife.

dhw: Firstly, it is you who keep separating yourself from your soul, and secondly you have repeated the theistic version of my theory: that your God created a mechanism whereby the brain produces consciousness (materialism). See above for the continuation. Thank you for supporting my theory.

DAVID: No support. See above. And I am not separated from my soul. It is me, but has the ability to leave me in death and remain mentally active.

dhw: A God-given mechanism that creates consciousness from the electrical activity of the brain is precisely what I have suggested in the theistic version of my theory. The mechanism IS the brain and its ions, since you say they create thought, and so why do you need a soul (apart from your half-baked idea of it being a translator)? The dualist’s faith that the soul remains “mentally active” in death without the brain is regarded as evidence that in life there is such a thing as a “mentally active” soul, which means that the brain is NOT the source of thought. Hence dualism. However, now that you have insisted that the brain creates thought, I challenge you to find an alternative to my proposed way of reconciling your materialism with your dualism.

As usual you have totally twisted my theory to criticize it by using your definition of dualism, which is not my definition. At first we used soul/self/consciousness (s/s/c) in discussion, and then shortened it to soul, which I think has confused the discussion. The first point is we know consciousness arises from electric currents made from ions running around brain networks. Therefore thought develops that way when I/soul originate it, by using the brain, which in life is the mechanism we have. In using the immaterial image of me as 'soul' is just an attempt to define a soul as that which exists and can leave my dead body to enter an afterlife. In the Bible God breathed a soul into Adam's body, after He created the body. The soul is not the body in current belief, but belongs to the body. My belief mirrors that. As an agnostic you don't know what to believe, so stop telling me what dualists believe. I believe what I believe without reference to specific required constructs of dualism according to you.