Modal Argument: The Mind is Not the Brain

[genkaus]

I accept your challenge. When you set a thermostat to 72, it intends to reach it. Explain to me how this is different from a hungry dog that intends to eat a rabbit. From a materialistic perspective both exhibit mental properties. Only the thermostat has no brain yet shows goal directed behaviour.

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You didn't answer the question. What does it mean for a mental property to have harmony, and to which mental properties does this apply?

I believe by referring to mental properties as being "received or having pre-existing harmony", Chad is referring to his preferred position of dualism. Assuming the existence of a soul separate from the body, one could argue that the soul does all the feeling and emoting and thinking etc. and the observed mental properties are the effect of these "soul" events. Similarly, by saying that there is preexisting harmony, what he means is that while soul and brain are two separate entities, their events act as reflections of each-other, i.e. every soul-event is in "harmony" with the corresponding mental property.