Philosophy of Mind
The study of consciousness, mental causation, and the relationship between mind and body—pointing toward a Mind behind all minds.
Mind-Body Problem
How do mind and body relate? This ancient question remains unsolved. Descartes posed it sharply: how can immaterial mind interact with material body?
Physicalism tries to reduce mind to brain, but faces the hard problem. Dualism preserves the reality of mind but must explain interaction. Theism provides resources for both.
- Dualism: Mind and body are distinct substances—the traditional view. Descartes, Swinburne, and others defend substance dualism.
- Physicalism's Problems: Reducing mind to brain faces the hard problem and other objections. Eliminativism denies consciousness exists—an absurd conclusion.
- Mental Causation: How can non-physical minds cause physical effects? If God is a non-physical mind who acts in the world, the problem is solved in principle.
- Hylomorphism: Aristotle and Aquinas: the soul is the form of the body. Mind and body are not two substances but one unified being.
Argument from Consciousness
Consciousness provides evidence for theism. If consciousness is fundamental to reality, a conscious God is more plausible than brute matter.
The emergence of consciousness from non-conscious matter is deeply puzzling on naturalism. But if Mind is fundamental—if God is the ground of being—then finite minds are expected.
- Mind-First: If consciousness is fundamental, a conscious God is more plausible than brute matter. Idealism and theism share this insight.
- Emergence Problem: How does consciousness emerge from non-conscious matter? Theism avoids this problem—mind is fundamental, not emergent.
- Imago Dei: Human consciousness reflects divine consciousness—we are made in God's image. Our minds are finite echoes of the infinite Mind.
- Rational Souls: Our capacity for reason, abstraction, and self-reflection points beyond animal cognition. We are rational souls, not merely clever apes.