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    Carmelics

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    Perspectives
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    42
    Matter and motion cannot produce thought and consciousness. — Carmelics
    Home/Consciousness & Mind
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    Matter and motion cannot produce thought and consciousness.

    Consciousness & Mind
    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.For matter and motion to produce thought and consciousness, a cause would have to produce effects possessing perfections that the cause itself lacks.
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    • 2.A cause cannot produce effects that possess perfections the cause lacks, because this would mean something is produced from nothing.
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    • 3.Something being produced from nothing is absurd and contradictory.
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Emergent properties at higher levels of organization are causally novel and need not be present in the constituent parts, as water's liquidity is absent from individual H2O molecules.
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    • 2.The 'perfections' framework assumes a homogeneous causal ontology that emergentist accounts, from Mill's 'heteropathic laws' to contemporary philosophy of mind, systematically reject.
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    • 3.Consciousness may be an emergent property of sufficiently complex material organization, making the production-from-nothing objection a category error about levels of description.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.The supporting argument commits the causal adequacy principle in a pre-Humean form that Hume himself undermined: we observe constant conjunction, not necessary perfection-transfer between causes and effects.
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    • 2.If causal powers are defined by observed regularities rather than metaphysical resemblance, there is no principled barrier to complex neural processes regularly producing conscious states.
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    Topics

    Consciousness & Mind

    Connections

    2 topics

    Causation3 linkedNatural Theology2 linked

    Related

    A cause cannot produce effects that possess perfections the cause lacks, because...Consciousness may be an emergent property of sufficiently complex material organ...Emergent properties at higher levels of organization are causally novel and need...For matter and motion to produce thought and consciousness, a cause would have t...
    +4 moreShow less
    If causal powers are defined by observed regularities rather than metaphysical r...Something being produced from nothing is absurd and contradictory.The 'perfections' framework assumes a homogeneous causal ontology that emergenti...The supporting argument commits the causal adequacy principle in a pre-Humean fo...

    Similar

    Bodily motion cannot directly act on the soul as a physical cause81%The mind is purely active and therefore cannot be the seat of sensatio...81%For matter and motion to produce thought and consciousness, a cause wo...81%Bodily motion cannot have any effect on a spiritual soul79%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: hume-religion
    View source passageHide passage
    There are two “metaphysical” arguments that aim to establish the immateriality of the soul that Hume is especially concerned with. The first argument, which is Platonic in origin, maintains that whereas mind is simple, unitary and indivisible, matter is compounded and infinitely divisible. It follows from this, according to this argument, that mind is distinct from matter and that only an immaterial being or substance is capable of thought and consciousness. Moreover, since immaterial minds are
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit