Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ How do People Think the Mind and the Brain Interact?

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

'Dualism' is the view that the mind and body are separate, dual, entities. A few years back, not long after I wrote my Consciousness paper, I tried a class presentation that started from a non-dualist perspective. The pushback was intense, and I was convinced not to try that approach again. In the surveys reported in this article by Jussi Valtonen people mostly agreed with a dualist perspective. However, "although people undoubtedly do reveal dualistic tendencies in surveys, they also endorse the view that the mind is not separable from the brain." The proposal here is that people develop "hybrid intuitive theories combining aspects of both." I'm not sure I agree. I think people simply aren't consistent with their beliefs, and will pick and chose one belief system or another depending on context. It's something researchers do all the time (though they misleadingly call this a 'lens') and I don't see why the rest of us can't.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Dec 22, 2024 4:44 p.m.

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