Dualism - An Unhealthy (literally) Philosophical Attitude

[Veritas Aequitas]

Many people, whether they know it or not, are philosophical dualists. That is, they believe that the brain and the mind are two separate entities. Despite the fact dualist beliefs are found in virtually all human cultures, surprisingly little is known about the impact of these beliefs on how we think and behave in everyday life.
But a new research article forthcoming in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, suggests that espousing a dualist philosophy can have important real-life consequences.
Across five related studies, researchers Matthias Forstmann, Pascal Burgmer, and Thomas Mussweiler of the University of Cologne, Germany, found that people primed with dualist beliefs had more reckless attitudes toward health and exercise, and also preferred (and ate) a less healthy diet than those who were primed with physicalist beliefs.
Furthermore, they found that the relationship also worked in the other direction. People who were primed with unhealthy behaviors – such as pictures of unhealthy food – reported a stronger dualistic belief than participants who were primed with healthy behaviors.

http://www.psychologicalscience.org/ind ... viors.html

[Impenitent]

if dualism is the case, why do lobotomies work?

-Imp

[The Voice of Time]

if dualism is the case, why do lobotomies work?

-Imp

soul looses contact with body?

Anywho, not a dualist by the old meaning, but of course consciousness exists and it's perceivable and as such of course there is something more than just "the brain" as the "just the brain" only tells us that there is something for which is subject to natural laws. However, I see no contradiction with natural law removing the concept of a realm of "mind". They are just two different ways of a unified informatical reality.

[Impenitent]

wouldn't that involve the pineal gland?

-Imp

[The Voice of Time]

wouldn't that involve the pineal gland?

-Imp

no idea to that answer... ask the Father of Modern Philosophy, I think he made up some guess some few hundred years ago. To me it's kinda contradictive to treat to realms of thinking as the same world. The world is what you think of it, so also the naturalistic and the metaphysical perspectives.

[Impenitent]

are you saying the brain, mind and soul are 3 seperate entities?

-Imp

[The Voice of Time]

are you saying the brain, mind and soul are 3 seperate entities?

-Imp

I don't know about this word "entity", but you could kind-of think about it like this: the neuroscientist experiences a thing on his monitor and calls it "cognition", the psychologist is the target of the experiment and calls it pondering because to him it is a special kind of thought he has designated a name through introspective analysis, and then there is the Christian mystic who says that streams of experience runs through his soul...

They are not necessarily different, they are just 3 different ways to retrieve information about something. I've always thought of introspective psychology as a pseudo-science 'cause of its lack of hard facts, but that doesn't mean it's not useful. So also with the Christian mystic, or the Buddhist, or the African witch doctor... they all have their ways of focusing on information and portraying a picture which, when thoroughly understood, gives the power to address ones states of being. Either it is by opening the skull with a knife, recording in a diary ones thoughts, or trying to comprehend the patterns of feeling that makes out it.

[Advocate]

The correct interpretation is that the mind is a metaphor for the patterns in the brain. It's the same physical stuff.