Dualism?

So what's really going on?

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SpheresOfBalance
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Re: Dualism?

Post by SpheresOfBalance »

bahman wrote: Sat Aug 13, 2016 1:49 pm
SpheresOfBalance wrote:
bahman wrote:I was thinking about dualism recently and I find it problematic. Lets start with definition of dualism. Dualism is a system of belief which claims that both mind/soul and matter are real. Mind however is not material hence it does not have any location. The problem I am facing is how one can related one mind to one body.
Again you speak of things that are not yet definite as if they are. Scientists are still coming to terms with the human mind. But as far as I know the mind is located within the brain, and is a combination of gray matter, chemistry, and electromagnetic energy, much like that which is believed to have created life in the beginning. So the mind is just as much material as any other fleshy part of the human body, chemically comprised of elements which are material, and then there are the four forces of the universe, electromagnetic radiation, electromagnetic flux, and lets not forget electrons, protons, neutrons, photons, quarks, and bosons, etc, etc, etc. The mind has a location!

Edit 1: Spelling
There is a paradox in your point view. All the stuff that you are made from move based on laws of nature.
So if I understand you, you're saying that all the stuff we're made of moves based upon the laws of nature?

There is no need for mind to exist at all.
You lost me here! If I understand what you wrote above, how does "need" necessarily follow? I'm saying that mind is determined by the universe and it's laws.

Yet mind exists while the stuff that makes you moves independently of your mind (since the laws of nature do so).
Again I have no clue of what you're talking about. We do not move independently of mind, we move because of mind, if you're speaking of how we control our bodies. That all things in the universe move relative to one another is of no consequence to the mind or body. All things in the body move, as all things in the mind moves, so what?

So the question is why what you expect as an aware person should exactly match to what happens?
It's not always true that what one expects actually happens.

So monism is not anomaly free. Unfortunately dualism is problematic too so we don't have a proper framework which can resolve the mind and body problem.
I don't see that there is a mind/body problem. I see that the problem is with those that think there is. The framework is simple, all that is in the universe is of the universe. Therefore there is no problem with anything in or of the universe. The only problem is mankind's understanding of the universe, such that any problem seen in any part of the universe, is mankind's problem in understanding it. So there's no problem, it's just that mankind is relatively young in terms of understanding everything of the universe. Problem solved! ;-)
Walker
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Re: Dualism?

Post by Walker »

“You cannot possibly say that you are what you think yourself to be! Your ideas about yourself change from day to day and from moment to moment. Your self-image is the most changeful thing you have. It is utterly vulnerable, at the mercy of a passer by. A bereavement, the loss of a job, an insult, and your image of yourself, which you call your person, changes deeply. To know what you are you must first investigate and know what you are not.”

- Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

*

Self-image is the most powerful attachment!

It is the most vulnerable, the most changeful attachment.

Folks will defend self-image to the death, and often do.

Even pacifists will die for self-image, because that's "just who they are." (brave, dedicated, moral, non-violent, all the good stuff)
Walker
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Joined: Thu Nov 05, 2015 12:00 am

Re: Dualism?

Post by Walker »

“Do you know what an image is? It is something carved by the hand, out of stone, out of marble, and this stone carved by the hand is put in a temple and worshipped. But it is still handmade, an image made by man. You also have an image about yourself, not made by the hand but made by the mind, by thought, by experience, by knowledge, by your struggle, by all the conflicts and miseries of your life. As you grow older, that image becomes stronger, larger, all-demanding and insistent. The more you listen, act, have your existence in that image, the less you see beauty, feel joy at something beyond the little promptings of that image.”

- J. Krishnamurti
Teaching at school
https://www.brockwood.org.uk/pdf/on_education.pdf
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