LIFE AFTER DEATH: Dual Aspect Monism

Question 1

What is dual aspect monism?

Answer 1

There is only one entity

This entity has 2 aspects- the mind and the brain

Question 2

What is qualia?

Answer 2

A quality as perceived by a person. Without qualia, we wouldn’t be able to know a person’s subjective feelings as we can’t know them by observing atoms or neutrons in the brain

Question 3

What is the mind in DAM?

Answer 3

The person’s subjective awareness that has qualia. Makes up one part of the self

Question 4

What is the brain in DAM?

Answer 4

Objective experience. You can put someone in a brain scanner to see its physical state. Makes up one part of the self

Question 5

What is a quark?

Answer 5

A type of elementary particle and a fundamental constituent of matter

Question 6

Positives of Dual Aspect Monism

Answer 6

1. One substance with two aspects avoids the problem with how separate mental and physical substances can interact
2. Physics doesn’t make sense without quarks. So, the idea that mind and matter are underpinned by a single, unknown entity isn’t unlikely

Question 7

What is panpsychism?

Answer 7

The belief that everything material has an element of individual consciousness

Question 8

How does panpsychism support DAM?

Answer 8

Even the smallest entities have a dual aspect. So, a dual aspect in humans is a development through increasing complexity of self

Question 9

What is the ‘self’ in DAM?

Answer 9

Has 1st person subjective (mind with self awareness)

Has 3rd person characteristics (controlled by the brain’s states)

Question 10

Where does DAM leave the soul?

Answer 10

It is redundant because all mental life can be explained as one aspect of one substance