Bodies and Souls

Are individuals bodies or souls, or a duality?  This is a question that has been contemplated for some time.  Though I believe individuals have souls, I know that I cannot prove, meaning provide a thinking proof, that this is the case.  I think I shall not know the truth of this issue until my physical life is over, but I have no way of knowing for certain, and I doubt I’ll be able to share what I find out after I physically die.

The Edge has an interesting piece posted wherein Paul Bloom, a professor of psychology at Yale, casts his eye on the subject and shares his thoughts on his interest in common sense dualism.  The piece is titled “Natural-Born Dualists."

Posted by on 05/19 at 05:26 AM

  1. John Venlet: Are individuals bodies or souls, or a duality?  This is a question that has been contemplated for some time.  Though I believe individuals have souls, I know that I cannot prove, meaning provide a thinking proof, that this is the case.

    How does one know a priori what can or cannot be proven?

    Was there a Time when it couldn’t be proven that the Sun was the center of the solar system? Was there a time when it couldn’t be proven that Man would master fire?

    How specifically did you come to conclude that the notion of a Soul was “unproveable”?

    It sounds like pure dogma to me.

    John Venlet: I think I shall not know the truth of this issue until my physical life is over, but I have no way of knowing for certain, and I doubt I’ll be able to share what I find out after I physically die.

    Well, one would hope that some answers would be fourthcoming … although if that’s not the case one would assume it may be a moot point … ?

    But do you believe that if you die and persist that somehow this will cause you to evolve? Will your consciousness be radically different after you die? If your consciousness is radically altered after you die, will that entity still be You (John Venlet)? Will your ability to comprehend increase?

    Perhaps you are exactly the same the moment after you die? Perhaps it is only the reality that changes around you?

    Posted by  on  05/19  at  07:22 AM

  2. Serpent - Though I would like to address your questions, I cannot without descending into flights of fancy and appeals to mysticism.  I will share the following, though, which I read not ten minutes ago, and is taken from Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil, section 30.

    "Our highest insights must - and should - sound like follies and sometimes like crimes when they are heard without permission by those who are predisposed and predestined for them."

    Posted by  on  05/19  at  10:19 AM

  3. John Venlet: Though I would like to address your questions, I cannot without descending into flights of fancy and appeals to mysticism.

    I would argue that asserting something is “unknowable” is a form of Mysticism.

    If other theories can be proven or disproven then why can’t this particular theory be proven or disproven?

    Maybe this is what the advocates of a competing theory want you to believe?

    Normally you would seem to reject this type of Authoritarianism, but in this case you seem quite submissive and malleable. I was merely curious as to the apparent contradiction?

    Fredrick Nietzsche: …when they are heard without permission by those who are predisposed and predestined for them.

    How does someone “hear something without permission” that they were obviously Fated (Destined) to hear?

    Or is that a euphemism?

    Posted by  on  05/19  at  12:06 PM

  4. "I would argue that asserting something is “unknowable” is a form of Mysticism."

    I don’t think, Serpent, that I stated that the questions being discussed are “unknowable.” I stated that I didn’t know the answers, currently.

    Posted by  on  05/20  at  05:33 AM

  5. As simply as I can put it … What line of reasoning leads you to this conclusion:

    John Venlet: I think I shall not know the truth of this issue (i.e. the existence of the “Soul”) until my physical life is over.

    I can’t imagine you making this statement regarding Quantum Mechanics, or faster than light travel, or General Relativity, so why do you make this statement regarding all theories of the Soul?

    Posted by  on  05/20  at  06:37 AM

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