with respect to the mind-body problem, it seems clear that the ontological dualism implicit in the classical understanding of mind and body could thereby be finally laid to rest. For, mind and body are then not two different realities, as Descartes proposed following the lead of Plato.23 Nor are they to be understood as form and matter as Aquinas suggested following the lead of Aristotle. Rather, they are two dialectically related dimensions of one and the same physical reality at all levels of existence and activity within Nature. Thus the higher forms of mental activity should logically be emergent out of matter when the latter is properly conditioned to sustain that degree of interaction. As William Hasker suggests, this is where more recent discussion of the mind-body problem seems to be headed but what is still lacking is a better understanding of what is meant by “emergence.”
Metanexus Institute:
Filed in: Metanexus Whitehead matter process philosophy synechism mind spirit body emergence resurrection
5 comments:
If our corpses dissolve into dust, will we be reformed from the dust of the earth?
Paul seems to deny that resurrected bodies are made of materials found on earth.
1 Corinthians 15:47The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. 48As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.
No wonder Paul regarded the Corinthians as idiots for wondering how God could reform a decayed, rotting corpse. They were missing the whole point. What goes into the ground dies.
Thanks Steven. I can't make out whether you think you're agreeing or disagreeing with me! For what it's worth and for clarity's sake, I agree.
The point I'm making takes that for granted. But I'm saying that I think ontological dualism is not viable any longer in Christian anthropology. However that's not to say materialistic monism is the only other possibility. Emergence is a way to think about the issue that can take up the best insights of the Thomist tradition and rework them in a way that makes sense of our growing knowledge about identity and bodiliness. The book helps a lot in exploring the issues from a philosophical perspective and roughly comes out where I do on the issue in a way that does justice to the biblica, theological, scientific and philosophical issues as far as I can see.
And you might like to see a review of the book I wrote here
Does't Paul regard us as being made up of body. spirit and soul? (soma, pnuema and psyche)
To be more precise, soma is our body. Psyche is life - ie what you lose when you die, and pneuma is what will survive and be in a new pneumatic (or spiritual) body, when our current, biological body has perished.
Again little disagreement from me. But I'm wondering if you understand what emergence is really about? You really would do well to read the book I mentioned, particularly the last chapter.
Post a Comment