Moreland is one of my favourite philosophers - I never fail to be
challenged by what I have learnt and in every book he shows himself to be the
real deal. I was fascinated with the Mind/Body issue after reading his
chapter in "Philosophical foundations of a Christian Worldview"
many years ago. In 2012 I purchased his remarkable book "Consciousness and the Existence of God: A Theistic
Argument." I read about half
of it with a pencil in my hand, defining words and trying to link ideas.
It was too hard for me. I put it back on the shelf and thought that
I must come back to it later. Then Moreland published this - a laypersons
account of his argument and I rushed to buy it. Complete with his
argument against Naturalism, "The Recalcitrant Imago Dei: Human
Persons and the Failure of Naturalism," I am ready to digest what
Moreland has to say about the Soul and it's existence.
So, this is the first of his three books on the Mind/Body issue that I
will try to read this year. I have a couple of others to balance out my
views too. So, wow, what an easy book to read, he defines some terms and
is helpful for the lay reader whenever possible. In fact, the chapter
summary and glossary at the end of each chapter is fantastic. There is a
few pages of difficult reading when Moreland looks at different types of
Physicalim and he shifts easily into more academic philosophical writing.
He states that one should feel free to skip over this section of the book if it
causes issues. Many would do that I think.
This book is written for Christian’s as a defense of the belief of the
Soul. In fact, Chapter 2 is dedicated to analyzing the Biblical text to
see if belief in a non-material Soul is a necessary part of Christian
belief. He concludes that it is – I think he is correct.
However, this book is not just for Christians – it should be picked up
by anyone wanting to understand the basic arguments around the mind/body
issues. This is an outstanding introduction to philosophy of the
mind. In chapter one there is a section where Moreland states that modern
advances in Neuroscience have not advanced the dialogue in any meaningful
way. He repeatedly makes the point that substance dualism/property
dualism and various brands of Physcialism are empirically equivalent. The
scientific data fits with all the views and the philosophical arguments are
where the real issues lie. This is clearly not the view of the
Physicalists as they view dualism as ‘Folk psychology’. Moreland is
really quite persuasive here.
Leibneitzian laws of identity are the key to understanding the
arguments. Moreland does a great job explaining it all. I like the
modal argument myself and find it very convincing although I understand that
most people don’t feel its force.
The last chapter is worth the price of the book itself – Moreland seeks
to explain why the Soul is important and how it links to Christian
belief. He provides a persuasive case for Christian Theism and gives
thoughtful response to objections.
I think that this is an area in which Christians will need to understand
more &more, and actively engage with. What constitutes personhood in
the cases of Euthanasia and Abortion? These are issues of contention
and areas of attack from the secular world. This world is becoming
increasingly secular and I believe this will increasingly rob humanity of hope,
meaning, purpose and moral truth. The 'Soul' is a key battleground and
one everyone should be conversant with.
I particularly enjoyed Moreland’s dealing with Near Death experiences
and with Ebon Alexander, a materialist Neurosurgeon changing his mind about the
soul after a Near Death Experience in recent years; Dualism is not going away.
Any negatives? I would like more on the difference between
Cartesian and Thomistic Dualism. I would also like to see other non-identity
based arguments for and against Dualism. I'm sure that I will get this as
I delve more into the literature.
5 Stars – Should be read by everyone
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