Dualism vs Materialism or Mind vs Soul

[Neo-Scholastic]

I think one of the biggest flaws that the proponents of a soul have going for them is that they are unable to define exactly what a soul is and what it does.

Agreed. I use the term "soul" in two ways. For me the continuity of personal existence, or soul, is part of my faith and known only by revelation. It, soul' also serves as a convenient place-holder for something whose properties, while suspected, are not fully known. For example,early atomic theory developed without much understanding of what atoms actually were. Only later did scientists flesh out their composition and inner workings. I see nothing wrong with talking about soul and souls without knowing all the details.

I have only seen it used as a filler for the gaps in our understanding of natural mechanisms.

Depends on how you define natural. And it also depends on how you define a gap. Quantum theory and general relativity did not just fill gaps in the Newtonian physical model. They produced a paradigm shift that completely altered our understanding of physical reality.

To my mind, qualia and intentionality are very basic parts of reality that do not fit within our current understanding of physical reality. I predict that filling that gap requires a similar paradigm shift. In retrospect, today's claim that these phenomena can be explained in term of current physics will seem silly.

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My position may be rational, broadly speaking, but not because the arguments favor it... My purpose in this paper is to... admit that I do not proportion my belief to the evidence

...so not rational at all, then. if there's no evidence then he's just making stuff up!

Which makes him an honest materialist. He has the guts to admit that the materialist position is not as strong you believe it is. It's pretty obvious that you cherry-picked the paper to find out of context quotes to justify your lack of curiosity. Clearly your own materialism is not based on rational considerations if you will not take challenges to your views seriously.