Michael Larkin
Member
I started explaining my own view earlier in the thread, but perhaps not explicitly enough.
I am a dualist who thinks that there are 'substances' (=enduring entities) of (at least) two kinds: mental and physical.
Only the mental entities are conscious. The physical entities are insensate.
But they are not of equal standing.
Rather, the mental substances are continually causing the physical substances to exist. And the physical substances are continually constraining the ways in which that first causing can operate. "Mental generates physical, and physical selects modes of mental causation". The 'generating' and 'selecting' give interactions between mind and body, but not symmetrically. Rather, since all causes from from the mental, it is dominant.
The substance of mental things is not specifically consciousness, but love and intention. They are what keep us to be enduring entities.
I happen to believe that there is something beyond either that created mental things. The mental things then create the physical as described above. So maybe many more than two kinds of substances.
Okay: that's somewhat clearer to me. It seems to go like this:
Ultimate cause=>possible string of causes culminating in=>mental things=>physical things.
Added to that,you say: Mental generates physical, and physical selects modes of mental causation, which I don't quite get yet: could you perhaps give an example to clarify?
Also, is the body a physical thing? If so, how do you interpret the meaning of the brain?