RE: Nondualism vs Dualism
April 16, 2019 at 10:57 pm
(This post was last modified: April 16, 2019 at 11:08 pm by Alan V.)
The problem with thinking different consciousnesses form a unity is that they are all discrete. They are not privy to each others' internal states.
Similarly, even individual consciousness is a composite rather than a unity. For instance, our consciousness when dreaming is missing a few pieces it has access to in waking, due to certain parts of our brains being deactivated.
I held out hope for dualism until I read more about brain science. Now I think it's pretty obvious that consciousness is not a being but an emergent property of a functioning brain. In other words, I'm not my consciousness, I'm my body which is sometimes conscious. We just get confused because the only times we are conscious of ourselves is when we are conscious at all.
I like the way dream researcher Allan Hobson clarifies the issue of apparent dualism. To paraphrase: "The mind is the subjective experience of having an objective brain." He calls his approach "dual-aspect monism."
Similarly, even individual consciousness is a composite rather than a unity. For instance, our consciousness when dreaming is missing a few pieces it has access to in waking, due to certain parts of our brains being deactivated.
I held out hope for dualism until I read more about brain science. Now I think it's pretty obvious that consciousness is not a being but an emergent property of a functioning brain. In other words, I'm not my consciousness, I'm my body which is sometimes conscious. We just get confused because the only times we are conscious of ourselves is when we are conscious at all.
I like the way dream researcher Allan Hobson clarifies the issue of apparent dualism. To paraphrase: "The mind is the subjective experience of having an objective brain." He calls his approach "dual-aspect monism."
