The Substance of Consciousness A Comprehensive Defense of Contemporary Substance Dualism

by Rickabaugh, Brandon; Moreland, J. P.

• ISBN13: 9781394195473
• ISBN10: 1394195478
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2023-10-24
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

A singularly powerful and rigorous argument in favor of modern substance dualism

In The Substance of Consciousness: A Comprehensive Defense of Contemporary Substance Dualism, two distinguished philosophers deliver a unique and powerful defense of contemporary substance dualism, which makes the claim that the human person is an embodied fundamental, immaterial, and unifying substance. Multidisciplinary in scope, the book explores areas of philosophy, cognitive science, neuroscience, and the sociology of mind-body beliefs.

The authors present the most comprehensive, up-to-date, and rigorous non-edited work on substance dualism in the field, as well as a detailed history of how property and substance dualism have been presented and evaluated over the last 150 years. Alongside developing new and updated positive arguments for substance dualism, they also discuss key metaphysical notions and distinctions that inform the examination of substance dualism and its alternatives.

Readers will also find:

• A thorough examination of the recent shift away from standard physicalism and the renaissance of substance dualism
• Comprehensive explorations of the likely future of substance dualism in the twenty-first century, including an exhaustive list of proposed research projects for substance dualists
• Practical discussion of new and rigorous critiques of significant physicality alternatives, including emergentism and panpsychism.
• Extensive treatments of philosophy of mind debates about the roles played by staunch/faint-hearted naturalism and theism in establishing or presuming methodology, epistemic priorities, and prior metaphysical commitments

Perfect for professional philosophers, The Substance of Consciousness will also earn a place in the libraries of consciousness researchers, philosophical theologians, and religious studies scholars.

Author Biography

J.P. Moreland is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University. He has authored or contributed to ninety-five books, including Does God Exist? (Prometheus), Universals (McGill-Queen’s), Consciousness and the Existence of God (Routledge), The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology, The Blackwell Companion to Substance Dualism, and Debating Christian Theism (Oxford). He has also published around one hundred articles in journals such as Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, American Philosophical Quarterly, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, and Religious Studies. In 2016 and 2022, Moreland was selected by The Best Schools as one of the 50 most influential living philosophers in the world.

Brandon Rickabaugh is Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Research Scholar of Philosophy of Technology and Culture at Palm Beach Atlantic University. His work has won multiple awards and published in academic journals and books with presses such as Wiley Blackwell and Oxford University Press, including The Blackwell Companion to Substance Dualism, Faith and Virtue Formation. Dr. Rickabaugh is a fellow of the Cultura Initiative at The Martin Institute in Santa Barbara, CA, where he explores how the nature of consciousness and developing technologies, including artificial intelligence, impact human flourishing and culture. For more, visit www.brandonrickabaugh.com.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Dedication

Extended Table of Contents

List of Figures

Part I: Ontologically Serious Philosophy of Mind: Contemporary and Tenacious Insights 

Substance Dualism in the 21st Century

How Staunch Naturalism Shapes the Dialectic in Philosophy of Mind

A Brief Ontological Detour: Subjects, Parts, Wholes, and Unity

 

Part II: Arguments from Introspection, Self-Awareness, and Intentionality 

The Nature of Introspection and Arguments for Substance Dualism

From Self-Awareness and Intentionality to the Immaterial Self

 

Part III: On the Fundamental Unity of Conscious Beings 

From Phenomenal Unity to the Synchronic Unity of the Immaterial Self

Mereological Essentialism and the Diachronic Endurance of the Soul

 

Part IV: Updated and Novel Arguments from Modality and Libertarian Freedom  

Updating Modal Arguments for Substance Dualism

Staunch Libertarian Agency and a Simple, Enduring Soul

 

Part V: New and Neglected Responses to Common Defeaters Against Substance Dualism  

Important and Recited Defeaters Against Substance Dualism

 

Part V: Charting a Future for Substance Dualism  

New Research Programs for 21st Century Substance Dualism

 

APPENDIX: Neuroscience, Mental Action, and the Conservation Laws, by Mihretu P. Guta

 

Bibliography