What is a Person?

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Quote:Who counts as a person? The severely mentally challenged? The elderly person at the end of Alzheimer’s? The unborn? On what basis do we decide this critical question? How do we know that we have a soul? Hasn’t science decided that all of what the soul does actually occurs in the brain? Join Scott as he tackles these questions and more with our colleague and guest, JP Moreland, and co-author of a new book, The Substance of Consciousness.

P Moreland is Distinguished Professor Philosophy, Talbot School of Theology, Biola University. He author, edited or contributed papers to 95 books and authored dozens of articles defending orthodox Christianity, and he is a widely sought after speaker both in the US and around the world. In 2015 he was named one of the 50 greatest living philosophers in the world.

Transcript can be found here.
'Historically, we may regard materialism as a system of dogma set up to combat orthodox dogma...Accordingly we find that, as ancient orthodoxies disintegrate, materialism more and more gives way to scepticism.'

- Bertrand Russell


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  • tim
I have this book and I think the arguments there are better than what is covered...

I'll post some notes later...
'Historically, we may regard materialism as a system of dogma set up to combat orthodox dogma...Accordingly we find that, as ancient orthodoxies disintegrate, materialism more and more gives way to scepticism.'

- Bertrand Russell


Nothing in there which mentions that people have experiences which are not their own.
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring 
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
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  • Sciborg_S_Patel
(2023-12-19, 10:06 AM)Max_B Wrote: Nothing in there which mentions that people have experiences which are not their own.

You're not ready to retire your theory, are you Max [Image: wink.png]
(2023-12-19, 06:13 AM)Sciborg_S_Patel Wrote: How do we know that we have a soul?

I think that question has been answered now.
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(2023-12-19, 10:06 AM)Max_B Wrote: Nothing in there which mentions that people have experiences which are not their own.

It was a much weaker interview than I thought it would be but I wouldn't expect this to come up.

Even in the book it seems they want to have a divide between belief in an immortal souls versus stuff like telepathy, with the former being more rational.
'Historically, we may regard materialism as a system of dogma set up to combat orthodox dogma...Accordingly we find that, as ancient orthodoxies disintegrate, materialism more and more gives way to scepticism.'

- Bertrand Russell


(2023-12-19, 01:43 PM)tim Wrote: I think that question has been answered now.

He does mention NDEs, though he suggests the only real ones are the ones that conform to his religion.

But the book deals with defending Substance Dualism from a philosophical perspective. On that score I think - being about 2 chapters in - it does well...
'Historically, we may regard materialism as a system of dogma set up to combat orthodox dogma...Accordingly we find that, as ancient orthodoxies disintegrate, materialism more and more gives way to scepticism.'

- Bertrand Russell


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(2023-12-19, 05:15 PM)Sciborg_S_Patel Wrote: It was a much weaker interview than I thought it would be but I wouldn't expect this to come up.

Even in the book it seems they want to have a divide between belief in an immortal souls versus stuff like telepathy, with the former being more rational.

I think they approach the question from the naive perspective of being an isolated individual within a separated world, just like most everyone else.
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring 
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
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  • Sciborg_S_Patel

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