There are those who passively accept what they’re taught and they are those who rebel as if instinctively, denying traditional beliefs and outlooks by denying conclusions without remembering that human thought is a process. It remains a process even when dealing with truths revealed by God — which are far fewer in number than many … [Read more…]
For more than two years, I’ve been engaged in an intense effort to explore new understandings of being and of truths which seem forced upon us by modern empirical knowledge. I was publishing the results of that effort on this blog, Acts of Being. I was also publishing a related series of entries on my … [Read more…]
I’m still trying to sketch out better ways to view causation and the human moral situation, ways that recognize both Christian truths and modern empirical knowledge. The first step is to start a refounding of our understanding of our own human nature and of concrete being in general, a refounding based upon the richer understandings … [Read more…]
In the January, 2009 issue of Brain in the news ( The Dana Foundation), there’s an interesting article, In Search of the God Neuron, by Steven Rose which reviews some recent books on the alleged problem of mind and brain. The reviewed books include several that take a materialistic position and one that takes a … [Read more…]
There’s little or no reason to believe there is any ‘mind-stuff’, material or supernatural, unless you simply wish to dogmatically assert that matter isn’t adequate as the foundation of our thoughts and feelings. Brain-scientists, geneticists, and evolutionary theorists are researching the workings of the human mind (and human nature more generally) and are producing remarkable … [Read more…]
There’s a question which has bothered me for a while: How could the ancient and Medieval thinkers have seen clearly so many truths about human nature and the rational nature of this universe (though they didn’t have this modern concept in quite this form) when they had such an incomplete view of basic physical reality? … [Read more…]
Reason is typically defined as if it were an object or faculty separable from the human body, much in the way that many define the soul. I don’t believe in souls as being entities residing alongside or apart from our physical substance and I don’t believe in reason as defined by traditional thinkers. It’s not … [Read more…]
Wikipedia tells us that metaphor is: language that directly compares seemingly unrelated subjects. In the simplest case, this takes the form: “The [first subject] is a [second subject].” More generally, a metaphor is a rhetorical trope that describes a first subject as being or equal to a second object in some way. Thus, the first … [Read more…]
This entry is a supplement to Not Monism and Not Dualism but Unity of Creation. One form of dualism, strongly supported by Aristotle, is particularly attractive at first contact: the idea that things come into being when form is impressed upon substance. What’s wrong about this, and perhaps the real error underlying all dualisms, is … [Read more…]
In a number of writings, I deny both the monisms of matter and spirit or thought. I also deny the dualism of body/soul, brain/mind, etc. Yet, I use the terms ‘soul’ and ‘mind’ on a regular basis. What gives? I think of being as richer than ‘mere’ matter, yet, I see no reason to speak … [Read more…]