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A groundbreaking collection of contemporary essays from leading international scholars that provides a balanced and expert account of the resurgent debate about substance dualism and its physicalist alternatives.
Substance dualism has for some time been dismissed as an archaic and defeated position in philosophy of mind, but in recent years, the topic has experienced a resurgence of scholarly interest and has been restored to contemporary prominence by a growing minority of philosophers prepared to interrogate the core principles upon which past objections and misunderstandings rest. As the first book of its kind to bring together a collection of contemporary writing from top proponents and critics in a pro-contra format, The Blackwell Companion to Substance Dualism captures this ongoing dialogue and sets the stage for rigorous and lively discourse around dualist and physicalist accounts of human persons in philosophy.
Chapters explore emergent, Thomistic, Cartesian, and other forms of substance dualism—broadly conceived—in dialogue with leading varieties of physicalism, including animalism, non-reductive physicalism, and constitution theory. Loose, Menuge, and Moreland pair essays from dualist advocates with astute criticism from physicalist opponents and vice versa, highlighting points of contrast for readers in thematic sections while showcasing today’s leading minds engaged in direct debate. Taken together, essays provide nuanced paths of introduction for students, and capture the imagination of professional philosophers looking to expand their understanding of the subject.
Skillfully curated and in touch with contemporary science as well as analytic theology, The Blackwell Companion to Substance Dualism strikes a measured balanced between advocacy and criticism, and is a first-rate resource for researchers, scholars, and students of philosophy, theology, and neuroscience.
Jonathan J. Loose is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy and Psychology at Heythrop College, University of London. He completed work on this volume while also a visiting scholar at St Edmund's College, University of Cambridge.
Angus J. L. Menuge is Professor and Chair of Philosophy at Concordia University Wisconsin and President of the Evangelical Philosophical Society.
J. P. Moreland is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Biola University in La Mirada, California, where he has taught for 28 years. He has authored, edited, or contributed papers to over 95 books, including the Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology (Wiley Blackwell, 2009), and has published over 90 articles in professional journals of philosophy and theology.
Notes on Contributors ix
1 Introduction: Substance Dualism and Its Physicalist Rivals 1
Jonathan J. Loose, Angus J. L. Menuge, and J. P. Moreland
2 Redressing Substance Dualism 22
William G. Lycan
Part I. Articulating Substance Dualism 41
3 Substance Dualism: A Defense 43
Charles Taliaferro
Debating Emergent Dualism 61
4 The Case for Emergent Dualism 62
William Hasker
5 Against Emergent Dualism 73
Brandon L. Rickabaugh
Debating Thomistic Dualism 87
6 Aquinas on the Human Soul 88
Edward Feser
7 In Defense of a Thomistic-like Dualism 102
J. P. Moreland
8 A Critique of Thomistic Dualism 123
William Hasker
Debating Cartesian Dualism 132
9 Cartesian Substance Dualism 133
Richard Swinburne
10 Against Cartesian Dualism 152
Jaegwon Kim
11 Non-Cartesian Substance Dualism 168
E. J. Lowe
Debating the Unity of Consciousness 183
12 Substance Dualism and the Unity of Consciousness 184
J. P. Moreland
13 Problems with Unity of Consciousness Arguments for Substance Dualism 208
Tim Bayne
Debating Near-Death Experiences 226
14 Evidential Near-Death Experiences 227
Gary R. Habermas
15 The Phenomenology of Near-Death and Out-of-Body Experiences: No Heavenly Excursion for “Soul” 247
Michael N. Marsh
16 Why Reject Substance Dualism? 267
Ian Ravenscroft
Part II. Alternatives to Substance Dualism 283
17 Why Should a Christian Embrace Materialism (about Human Persons)? 285
Kevin Corcoran
Debating Animalism 296
18 For Animalism 297
Eric T. Olson
19 Against Animalism 307
Stewart Goetz
Debating Nonreductive Physicalism 316
20 For Nonreductive Physicalism 317
Nancey Claire Murphy
21 Against Nonreductive Physicalism 328
Joshua Rasmussen
Debating Constitutionalism 340
22 Constitutionalism: Alternative to Substance Dualism 341
Lynne Rudder Baker
23 Against Constitutionalism 351
Ross Inman
Debating Emergent Individualism 368
24 For Emergent Individualism 369
Timothy O’Connor
25 Against Emergent Individualism 377
Robert C. Koons
26 Why Reject Christian Physicalism? 394
Angus J. L. Menuge
Part III. Substance Dualism, Theology, and the Bible 411
Debating Biblical Anthropology 412
27 Biblical Anthropology is Holistic and Dualistic 413
John W. Cooper
28 The Strange Case of the Vanishing Soul 427
Joel B. Green
Debating the Incarnation 439
29 Dualism Offers the Best Account of the Incarnation 440
Luke Van Horn
30 The Word Made Flesh: Dualism, Physicalism, and the Incarnation 452
Trenton Merricks
Debating the Resurrection 469
31 Materialism Most Miserable: The Prospects for Dualist and Physicalist Accounts of Resurrection 470
Jonathan J. Loose
32 I Look for the Resurrection of the Dead and the Life of the World to Come 488
Peter van Inwagen
Index 501
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