In the last two decades the classical post-Cartesian mind-body dualism (which by many scientist and philosophers is considered to be old-fashioned and overcome by modern monism of materialism) seems to be prevailed by a kind of body-brain dualism propagated by modern neurophysiology and neurophilosophy. The human embryo however seems to challenge this false monism of “We are our brain.” The phe...

Quote: Originally Posted by TecnoTut Functionalism, whether it be machine functionalism, teleofunctionalism, or just plain old fashioned functionalism, merely describes what mental properties do, not what mental properties are ... Although functionalists associate themselves with materialistic monism (that is, the view that only material things exist), there is a dualism lurking beneath the sur...

In recent papers, Martine Nida-Rümelin (NR) has argued for a position she calls subject-body dualism on the basis of three distinct arguments. One is based on reflection on the emergence of phenomenal consciousness (Nida-Rümelin 2010b). One is based on reflection on our treatment of conscious subjects as active (Nida-Rümelin 2006). One is based on reflection on intelligible possibilities of tra...

The conceptual design of most computer-based information systems reflects a dualism of technology. During the development phase, part of the work-domain related knowledge is formalized and encoded in the software, making it difficult for users to reflect on and use this knowledge. This design/use-dualism contributes to the deterioration of the interpretive flexibility of information systems. We...

Cognitive theories of religion have postulated several cognitive biases that predispose human minds towards religious belief. However, to date, these hypotheses have not been tested simultaneously and in relation to each other, using an individual difference approach. We used a path model to assess the extent to which several interacting cognitive tendencies, namely mentalizing, mind body duali...

Introduction Clifford Geertz is one of the most celebrated anthropologists in twentieth-century anthropology. Starting his career in the late nineteen-fifties, he represented the American branch of symbolic anthropology, also known as interpretive anthropology. Geertz’s work continues to influence present-day authors, even after anthropology shifted to different topics than those lying within t...

I argue that a strong mind–body dualism is required of any formulation of quantum mechanics that satisfies a relatively weak set of explanatory constraints. Dropping one or more of these constraints may allow one to avoid the commitment to a mind–body dualism but may also require a commitment to a physical–physical dualism that is at least as objectionable. Ultimately, it is the preferred basis...

This is a timely reappraisal of one of Oliver Sacks’ less well-known works. The authors argue that the sense of detachment from his leg that Sacks felt after his injury and surgery was ‘functional/psychogenic’. 2 Stone and colleagues take Sacks’ account at face value and are at pains to label it repeatedly as ‘genuine’. Their aim is to go beyond Cartesian dualism, a common aspiration but one ha...