Bill Pratt | May 20, 2013
Post Author: Bill Pratt In part 1, we learned that thinkers in the seventeenth century proposed to divide up reality into that which could be quantitatively described by mathematics and that which could not. Philosopher Edward Feser, in a blog post, argues that this move by Galileo and Descartes was a massive blunder and compares it to the following [...]
Bill Pratt | May 17, 2013
Post Author: Bill Pratt Contemporary philosophers often refer to the “mind-body problem,” which is roughly the following: how is it that the physical body interacts with the seemingly non-physical mind? Many philosophers answer this question by simply denying that the mind is non-physical. They claim that the mind is a manifestation of the brain and the chemical [...]
Bill Pratt | April 30, 2012
Post Author: Bill Pratt In part 1 of this series, we argued that physicalism and determinism are self-refuting because they undermine rationality. At the end of part 1, we said that there are three conditions of rationality that physicalism does not allow, and Dr. Moreland explains them below: First, humans must have genuine intentionality; they must [...]
Bill Pratt | April 27, 2012
Post Author: Bill Pratt In the previous post, we saw that physicalism seems to inevitably lead to determinism. Determinism, if you recall, means that every event, including all of your thoughts, feelings, desires, and choices, is determined by the physical conditions antecedent to it. The renowned atheist philosopher Bertrand Russell said it this way: When [...]
Bill Pratt | April 13, 2012
Post Author: Bill Pratt Last post we looked at the issue of personal identity through change. Dualists explain this phenomenon by positing the existence of a soul which remains constant throughout a person’s life. Physicalists, however, deny that there is an absolute sense of personal identity, but this creates problems for their view. J. P. [...]
Bill Pratt | April 11, 2012
Post Author: Bill Pratt The next major difference between mental and physical entities is how personal identity through change is handled. Dr. Moreland asks us to… Imagine a wooden table that had all its parts removed one by one and replaced with metal parts. Now suppose someone took the original wooden parts and made a [...]
Bill Pratt | April 9, 2012
Post Author: Bill Pratt After a little break from this series, it is time to pick it up again because there is plenty more to discuss. Philosopher J. P. Moreland explains yet another way that mental and physical entities differ: the first person perspective. A complete physicalist description of the world would be one in which everything [...]
Bill Pratt | April 4, 2012
Post Author: Bill Pratt In the book Beyond Death, philosopher J. P. Moreland continues to review differences between the mental and the physical. The next point of departure is the awareness each of us has of our own self. Here is Moreland: When we pay attention to our own consciousness, we can become aware of [...]
Bill Pratt | April 2, 2012
Post Author: Bill Pratt One of the most important differences between the mental and physical is the property of intentionality. Philosopher J. P. Moreland explains just what intentionality is and why physicalism does not account for it. Intentionality is the mind’s ofness or aboutness. Mental states point beyond themselves to other things. Every mental state I [...]
Bill Pratt | March 30, 2012
Post Author: Bill Pratt There is another way that the mental differs from the physical, and that is in the subjective nature of experience. J. P. Moreland offers the following illustration: Suppose a deaf scientist became the world’s leading expert on the neurology of hearing. It would be possible for him to know and describe everything there [...]
