Posted by alexandra_k on September 19, 2006, at 4:22:35
In reply to Re: different terminology and talking past... » alexandra_k, posted by gardenergirl on September 19, 2006, at 0:07:31
:-)
Makes it harder too because when people use the term 'dualism' you can usually read 'Cartesian Dualism' unless otherwise specified. Descartes held an INTERACTIONIST view so that even though the mental and physical realms were different (and could not be reduced to the other) there is causation from the mental to the physical and from the physical to the mental.
There aren't any substance dualists left in philosophy. The remaining dualists are all property dualists.
They maintain that mental properties are brute just like certain physical properties (like mass and spin and charge) are brute. They think that for science to be able to offer a COMPLETE account scientists will need to have mental properties as their brute entities alongside some physical properties as their brute entities.
Future science... Should be able to tell us about the psychophysical laws that relate the brute mental properties to the brute physical properties.
Hence... You can be a dualist (a property dualist) and still be scientific. You can be a dualist (a property dualist) and still be a naturalistic. You just say that mental properties are natural properties of the world just like physical properties are. You can be a dualist and be a physicalist too. In the sense that the best microphysical theory... Will need to posit mental properties as brute alongside physical properties.
That is making a significant empirical bet...
But I'm sure it won't be falsified in their lifetime ;-)
poster:alexandra_k
thread:684913
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20060911/msgs/687318.html