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Realistic depiction of a brain split into two hemispheres, one side glowing brightly and the other in darkness, symbolizing the dualism of reason and emotion
Image Credit: Thanyarat - Adobe Stock

Soul Searching: The History and Motivations of Substance Dualism

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Guest host Pat Flynn welcomes Stewart Goetz and Charles Taliaferro to discuss substance dualism as an explanation for the nature of the human soul. The conversation draws from their contributions to the recent volume Minding the Brain. After a brief history of how the concept of the soul has been understood, Goetz and Taliaferro explain the main motivations for substance dualism: the common sense intuition that we are more than just our physical bodies, as well as the view that we have a sense of self-awareness and subjective experience that cannot be reduced to physical processes. The trio also review some of the objections against substance dualism.

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Soul Searching: The History and Motivations of Substance Dualism