An Argument For the Immateriality of the human intellect

[BlackFriar]

I have just explained that at some length and also referred you to Aquinas whom I attempted to summarise in modern thinking… If you havent got it yet I dont think anything more I can say will help or perhaps you need to do more leg work.

 

[AgnosticBoy]

I see. But how can a strict empiricism help us to measure anything but the brain?

I put a lot of stock into empirical verification/demonstration because there is just too much speculation on this important issue. In my view, there is no point in using philosophical/theological speculation to debate other philosophical/theological speculation. What gets us anywhere near validity is putting each speculation to an empirical test.

With that said, I believe empirical tools and methods can do more than just observe the brain. We can also observe the mind indirectly by observing its effects on the brain and body. The effects can be controlled, replicated, and predicted so this is a reliable way of indirectly observing the mind. Here’s an example of such findings, using mind to increase ‘physical’ strength.

Mental imagery has been reported to induce a performance improvement in skilled movements in a comparable way to physical training, which could be explained in terms of adaptation in motor cortex neurons (Guillot and Collet, 2005).
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Recently, Tod et al. (2015) showed a significant effect of mental imagery on muscular strength (63%) similar to that reported in the studies detailed previously in the present review.
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Typically, mental imagery with muscular activity was higher in active than passive muscles, and imagining “lifting a heavy object” resulted in more EMG activity compared with imagining “lifting a lighter object”.
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Also, the present review indicates that imagery injury prevention interventions have a large effect on reducing strength loss during ACL or when injured athletes remain inactive. Accordingly, Newsom et al. (2003) showed that imagery prevention intervention was effective in reducing strength loss of wrist flexion/extension after short-term muscle immobilization. More recently, Clark et al. (2014) found the effectiveness of integrating mental imagery in a rehabilitation process on the reduction of strength loss and voluntary activation.

Source: Effects of Mental Imagery on Muscular Strength in Healthy and Patient Participants: A Systematic Review

 

[STT]

I have just explained that at some length and also referred you to Aquinas whom I attempted to summarise in modern thinking… If you havent got it yet I dont think anything more I can say will help or perhaps you need to do more leg work.

I understand the necessity of this assumption, phantasm is material and immaterial, when you have matter and mind working together allowing experience or abstraction. But such assumption seems wrong to me since something cannot be both material and immaterial.

To me we can never be sure or prove that mind exists since all we experience is experience itself. What if all thing which exist is matter and experience?

 

[IWantGod]

No that is incorrect. The experience is not matter.

What does that mean? Are you saying experience is not physical?

You of course need to show that otherwise your theory of mind is problematic.

Because a materialistic philosophy of mind is not just problematic. It is absurd and impossible. Therefore it is reasonable for people to seek other alternatives. Property dualism is not my position but at least it acknowledges the existence of a duality.

I think my position necessitates that a scientific study of the mind will always be incomplete. But it is certainly not irrational or impossible.

 

[STT]

What does that mean? Are you saying experience is not physical?

It is physical, related to matter activity or intrinsic property of matter for example, but it is not matter.

Because a materialistic philosophy of mind is not just problematic. It is absurd and impossible. Therefore it is reasonable for people to seek other alternatives. Property dualism is not my position but at least it acknowledges the existence of a duality.

And why materialist philosophy of mind is absurd and impossible? I didn’t see any argument for that.

I think my position necessitates that a scientific study of the mind will always be incomplete. But it is certainly not irrational or impossible.

You first need to show that mind exist since the only thing that we are aware of is experience. You then need to show that a immaterial mind can interact with matter.