The Mind and the Machine
What It Means to Be Human and Why It Matters
Seiten
2017
Lutterworth Press (Verlag)
978-0-7188-9492-4 (ISBN)
Lutterworth Press (Verlag)
978-0-7188-9492-4 (ISBN)
A critique of the dominant physicalist paradigm of the mind, offering an alternative that places the bodily and the spiritual on an equal footing.
Are humans just complex biochemical machines, mere physical parts of a causally closed materialist universe? Are we approaching the so-called 'Singularity', when human consciousness can (and will) be downloaded into computers? Or is there more to the human person - something that might be known as 'soul' or 'spirit'? As this book makes clear, the answers to these questions have profound implications to topics such as heroism, creativity, ecology, and the possibility of reason and science. In exploring this important topic, Dickerson engages the ideas of some well-known twentieth- and twentyfirst-century espousers of physicalism, including the philosopher Daniel Dennett, the biologist Richard Dawkins, the futurist-engineer Raymond Kurzweil, the psychologist B.F. Skinner, and the mathematician-philosopher Bertrand Russell. Through a careful reading of their works, Dickerson not only provides a fivefold critique of physicalism but also offers a Christian alternative in the form of 'integrative dualism', which affirms the existence of both a physical and a spiritual reality without diminishing the goodness or importance of either, and acknowledges that humans are spiritual as well as bodily persons.
Are humans just complex biochemical machines, mere physical parts of a causally closed materialist universe? Are we approaching the so-called 'Singularity', when human consciousness can (and will) be downloaded into computers? Or is there more to the human person - something that might be known as 'soul' or 'spirit'? As this book makes clear, the answers to these questions have profound implications to topics such as heroism, creativity, ecology, and the possibility of reason and science. In exploring this important topic, Dickerson engages the ideas of some well-known twentieth- and twentyfirst-century espousers of physicalism, including the philosopher Daniel Dennett, the biologist Richard Dawkins, the futurist-engineer Raymond Kurzweil, the psychologist B.F. Skinner, and the mathematician-philosopher Bertrand Russell. Through a careful reading of their works, Dickerson not only provides a fivefold critique of physicalism but also offers a Christian alternative in the form of 'integrative dualism', which affirms the existence of both a physical and a spiritual reality without diminishing the goodness or importance of either, and acknowledges that humans are spiritual as well as bodily persons.
Matthew Dickerson is a professor at Middlebury College, affiliated with the Department of Computer Science and the Program of Environmental Studies. His most recent books include The Rood and the Torc: The Song of Kristinge, Son of Finn (2014) and The Gifted (2015).
Acknowledgments
Foreword by Charles Taliaferro
Introduction: Why Any of This Matters
IMPLICATIONS OF A HUMAN MACHINE
1. Ghosts, Machines, and the Nature of Light
2. Physicalism, Creativity, and Heroism
3. Naturalism and Nature: The Ecology of Physicalism
4. Reason, Science, and the Mind as a Physical Brain
THE SPIRITUAL HUMAN
5. Affirming the Creative and the Heroic
6. Body, Spirit, and the Value of Creation
7. A Biblical Defense of Reason and Science
8. The Integrated Person
Works Cited
| Erscheinungsdatum | 01.04.2017 |
|---|---|
| Verlagsort | Cambridge |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 153 x 229 mm |
| Gewicht | 360 g |
| Themenwelt | Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Metaphysik / Ontologie |
| Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie | |
| ISBN-10 | 0-7188-9492-8 / 0718894928 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-7188-9492-4 / 9780718894924 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
| Informationen gemäß Produktsicherheitsverordnung (GPSR) | |
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Buch | Softcover (2024)
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CHF 21,90
