11. Life after Death: Arguments for Dualism

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  • Created by: Alasdair
  • Created on: 18-06-17 18:05
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  • 11. Life after Death: Arguments for Dualism
    • The Introspection Argument (Philosophical)
      • Our Sense of Self-Awareness
      • "It is not that each of us uniquely has these but rather that each of his or her own individualised set"
      • Further access to this set is private
        • I might infer from your behaviour what you are thinking or feeling but my access to your mental life is not allowed
      • This argument is claiming that because I experience a sense of 'self' that is private to me and not accessible to anyone else then it must be real
      • It cannot be synonymous with our public, physical self
    • Descartes (philosophical)
      • The Doubt Argument
      • I can doubt that my body exists
      • I can doubt that I exist as a thinking thing
      • I, a thinking thing, am not identical with my body
    • Leibniz's law (philosophical)
      • Trying to sharpen Descartes' theory up a bit
      • The Principle of the Indiscernabilty of Identicals
      • If two things are identical, then they have exactly the same properties
        • In other words you can't discern (tell the difference) between the same properties - if not they are NOT THE SAME
      • I, a thinking thing, do not have such that I doubt my existence
      • I, a thinking thing, am not identical with my body since I can doubt one (my body) but not the other (my mind) - therefore mind and body are not the same.
      • If two things are identical, then they have exactly the same properties
        • In other wrds you can't discern (tell the difference) between two things
      • My body has the property of being such that I can doubt its existence
    • Near Death Experience (evidential)
      • If there is an aspect of 'us' that can exist apart from our body then there must be some part of us that is non-material, i.e. a soul
      • Example
        • Pam Reynolds
        • 'Operation Standstill'
        • Induced brain death
        • She has consciousness and senses work despite clinical death
        • Sees herself, identifies instruments
        • Hears
        • Can identify a specific medical tool she would not have known about had she not been floating above her body
        • Very detailed knowledge of what is going on whilst she was unconscious
        • Extraordinary as surgeons can pin-point her experience
      • Pam Reynolds contested
        • Stuart Hameroff, Director of Consciousness Studies
          • Argues consciousness is produced in brain at quantum level
          • He argues that due to 'Super-Positioning' (where a prticle can be in two places/states at once) consciousness could 'leak out' and remain outside body when we die
          • Argues what happened to Pam Reynolds is a 'Quantum entanglement'
        • Susan Blackmore
          • Cites nearly 30 years of research into paranormal claims and early cases she has investigated always found no evidence or an alternative explanation
          • "I can only say that my expectation is that this case did not happen like that"
        • Ockham's Razor
          • We should accept the simplest exxplanation as the most likely
            • Therefore, it ca bee explained by trauma of the blood clot and drugs

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