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Dualism (physical/non-physical interactions) made intelligible
A common argument against Cartesian dualism, which states that consciousness or "the soul" exists independently of the body but interacts with it, is that such an interaction between the physical body and non-physical mind is logically impossible. Mentat for one () is fond of advocating this argument, as exemplified below:
It is not my intention here to argue for the existence of a non-physical mind or soul, but rather to present a viewpoint which actually seems to make the interaction between a non-physical mind and a physical body intelligible and logically consistent.
The inspiration for this comes from David Chalmers' essay http://www.u.arizona.edu/~chalmers/papers/matrix.html [Broken]. Making dualism intelligible is not the main objective of the essay, but arises as an interesting side issue. One will be best served to understand the argument I am about to put forth by reading Chalmers' essay in its entirety, but I will here put forth a brief summary of those points pertinent to our discussion of how dualism is to be made intelligible.
Let us imagine an individual X who exists in a world fabricated by computers, a la The Matrix. X calls the reality in which he lives and with which he interacts "physical," much as we call the world we live in "physical." The term "physical" applies only to this world X finds himself in; he does not necessarily deny the existence of anything beyond this immediate physical world, but from X's standpoint anything that exists outside his immediately observable world is not "physical" but "non-physical" or "metaphysical." This again agrees with our notions of the words "non-physical" and "metaphysical," as we use them in relation to our own existential circumstances.
But we also know that X's physical world is, at its base, a rich composite of binary 1s and 0s existing in the computers that simulate this world. For clarity, let us denote anything pertaining to X's immediate, computationally generated world with a *-- so, for instance, X lives in a world*, and X denotes the fundamental substance of this world* as physical*. Likewise, let us denote anything pertaining to the world that exists outside of X's world*-- that world that contains the computers which generate X's fabricated reality-- with a ^. So, for instance, we say that X's world* is, at its most fundamental level, generated by computers^.
In addition to X's physical* body* and brain*, we know that there is something more to X's existence-- his world* is generated by computer signals^ which feed information into his brain^, and which also take responses from his brain^ and feed them back into his simulated world*. The result is that, from X's standpoint, he is fully immersed in his physical* world*, receiving information from it, processing this information, and then interacting with it. X cannot possibly know about the existence of these computers^ or his "actual" brain^, and thus to him these things are "non-physical*" or "metaphysical*."
So, X's mind^ (brain^) is actually a non-physical* entity that nonetheless interacts with his physical* world! As summed up by Chalmers in note 6 of his essay:
(edit for grammar)
A common argument against Cartesian dualism, which states that consciousness or "the soul" exists independently of the body but interacts with it, is that such an interaction between the physical body and non-physical mind is logically impossible. Mentat for one () is fond of advocating this argument, as exemplified below:
You mentioned that there would have to be a "portal" (I referred to it as an "intermediary", but "portal" works fine) between the non-physical and the physical, in order for consciousness to be non-physical and yet communicate with the brain. You are absolutely right, except there cannot logically be such a portal. It cannot exist, not even in principle. The reason this is is that for there to be an intermediary between the physical and the non-physical, this intermediary could neither be physical (since, if it were physical, it would be no more useful then the already physical brain in communicating with the non-physical) nor non-physical (since it would then be no more useful in communicating with the physical brain).
It is not my intention here to argue for the existence of a non-physical mind or soul, but rather to present a viewpoint which actually seems to make the interaction between a non-physical mind and a physical body intelligible and logically consistent.
The inspiration for this comes from David Chalmers' essay http://www.u.arizona.edu/~chalmers/papers/matrix.html [Broken]. Making dualism intelligible is not the main objective of the essay, but arises as an interesting side issue. One will be best served to understand the argument I am about to put forth by reading Chalmers' essay in its entirety, but I will here put forth a brief summary of those points pertinent to our discussion of how dualism is to be made intelligible.
Let us imagine an individual X who exists in a world fabricated by computers, a la The Matrix. X calls the reality in which he lives and with which he interacts "physical," much as we call the world we live in "physical." The term "physical" applies only to this world X finds himself in; he does not necessarily deny the existence of anything beyond this immediate physical world, but from X's standpoint anything that exists outside his immediately observable world is not "physical" but "non-physical" or "metaphysical." This again agrees with our notions of the words "non-physical" and "metaphysical," as we use them in relation to our own existential circumstances.
But we also know that X's physical world is, at its base, a rich composite of binary 1s and 0s existing in the computers that simulate this world. For clarity, let us denote anything pertaining to X's immediate, computationally generated world with a *-- so, for instance, X lives in a world*, and X denotes the fundamental substance of this world* as physical*. Likewise, let us denote anything pertaining to the world that exists outside of X's world*-- that world that contains the computers which generate X's fabricated reality-- with a ^. So, for instance, we say that X's world* is, at its most fundamental level, generated by computers^.
In addition to X's physical* body* and brain*, we know that there is something more to X's existence-- his world* is generated by computer signals^ which feed information into his brain^, and which also take responses from his brain^ and feed them back into his simulated world*. The result is that, from X's standpoint, he is fully immersed in his physical* world*, receiving information from it, processing this information, and then interacting with it. X cannot possibly know about the existence of these computers^ or his "actual" brain^, and thus to him these things are "non-physical*" or "metaphysical*."
So, X's mind^ (brain^) is actually a non-physical* entity that nonetheless interacts with his physical* world! As summed up by Chalmers in note 6 of his essay:
On the Mind-Body Hypothesis: It is interesting to note that the Matrix Hypothesis shows a concrete way in which Cartesian substance dualism might have turned out to be true. It is sometimes held that the idea of physical processes interacting with a nonphysical mind is not just implausible but incoherent. The Matrix Hypothesis suggests fairly straightforwardly that this is wrong. Under this hypothesis, our cognitive system involves processes quite distinct from the processes in the physical world, but there is a straightforward causal story about how they interact.
(edit for grammar)
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