I certainly ain't fer dualism, but I think that merely pointing to the complexity of the brain or to correlations between processes taking play its parts and reported is not sufficient to destroy dualism. I prefer to look for a more robust refutation, and in that spirit, I would first offer an (ironic) defense of dualism of the sort that would recognize the need for the complexity of operation in the brain. The argument that defeats this not-so-lame version of dualism is one that gives us insights into an alternative to both dualism AND to materialistic monism.
How about defining it as an instance of functional complexity? And treating the list of properties as following necessarily from this definition? Okay, this is very diamond-in-the-rough (or perhaps zirconium...) but here goes my thoughts on the matter: (Complexity) Many diverse parts (functional) acting for the sake of the whole I think I need to add something like "not as the instrument of another" or something like that. Given that they act together as one whole and given entropy, etc., the organism will need to posses more order than its surroundings (homeostasis). It will therefore need to take in energy (nutrition), which it will use to sustain its readiness to interact with its environment so as to preserve its own being (homeostasis again?), but which will eventually break down (death), so that in order for that life form to continue it will need to duplicate itself (reproduction), which, upon occurring, will involve both development (growth) to maturity and...
Comments