The Substance of Consciousness: A Comprehensive Defense of Contemporary Substance Dualism

by Brandon Rickabaugh, J. P. Moreland

Overview

A singularly powerful and rigorous argument in favor of modern substance dualism

In The Substance of Consciousness: A Comprehensive Defense of Contemporary Substance Dualism, two distinguished philosophers deliver a unique and powerful defense of contemporary substance dualism, which makes the claim that the human person is an embodied fundamental, immaterial, and unifying substance. Multidisciplinary in scope, the book explores areas of philosophy, cognitive science, neuroscience, and the sociology of mind-body beliefs.

The authors present the most comprehensive, up-to-date, and rigorous non-edited work on substance dualism in the field, as well as a detailed history of how property and substance dualism have been presented and evaluated over the last 150 years. Alongside developing new and updated positive arguments for substance dualism, they also discuss key metaphysical notions and distinctions that inform the examination of substance dualism and its alternatives.

Readers will also find:

• A thorough examination of the recent shift away from standard physicalism and the renaissance of substance dualism
• Comprehensive explorations of the likely future of substance dualism in the twenty-first century, including an exhaustive list of proposed research projects for substance dualists
• Practical discussion of new and rigorous critiques of significant physicality alternatives, including emergentism and panpsychism.
• Extensive treatments of philosophy of mind debates about the roles played by staunch/faint-hearted naturalism and theism in establishing or presuming methodology, epistemic priorities, and prior metaphysical commitments

Perfect for professional philosophers, The Substance of Consciousness will also earn a place in the libraries of consciousness researchers, philosophical theologians, and religious studies scholars.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781394195473
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	11/07/2023
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 10.00(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

BRANDON RICKABAUGH is Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Research Scholar of Philosophy of Technology and Culture at Palm Beach Atlantic University. His work has won multiple awards and published in academic journals and books with presses such as Wiley Blackwell and Oxford University Press. He is a fellow of the Cultura Initiative at The Martin Institute in Santa Barbara, California. For more, visit www.brandonrickabaugh.com.

J.P. MORELAND is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University. He has authored or contributed to 95 books, including Does God Exist?, Universals, Consciousness and the Existence of God, and The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology. He has also published around one hundred articles in a range of philosophy and religious studies journals, and in 2016 and 2022, Moreland was selected by The Best Schools as one of the 50 most influential living philosophers in the world.

Table of Contents

List of Figures xxi

Acknowledgments xxii

Part I Ontologically Serious Philosophy of Mind 1

1 Substance Dualism in the 21st Century 3

2 How Staunch Naturalism Shapes the Dialectic in Philosophy of Mind 16

3 A Brief Ontological Detour: Subjects, Parts, Wholes, and Unity 43

Part II Arguments from Introspection, Self-Awareness, and Intentionality 57

4 The Real Nature of Introspection Arguments for Substance Dualism 59

5 From Self-Awareness and Intentionality to the Self as Soul 74

Part III On the Fundamental Unity of Conscious Beings 117

6 From Phenomenal Unity to the Synchronic Unity of the Immaterial Self 119

7 Mereological Essentialism and the Diachronic Endurance of the Soul 144

Part IV Updated and Novel Arguments from Modality and Libertarian Freedom 189

8 Upgrading Modal Arguments for Substance Dualism 191

9 Staunch Libertarian Agency and the Simple, Enduring Soul 234

Part V New and Neglected Responses to Common Defeaters Against Substance Dualism 273

10 Important Frequently Raised Defeaters Against Substance Dualism 275

Part VI Charting a Future for Substance Dualism 309

11 New Research Programs for 21st Century Substance Dualism 311

APPENDIX: The Soul, Mental Action, and the Conservation Laws 344
Mihretu P. Guta

Bibliography 361

Index 392

Editorial Reviews

"Though most materialists don't know it, we're in the midst of a renaissance of intellectually serious substance dualism thirty years in the making. The Substance of Consciousness will push the crest of that dualist wave even higher. Materialists who hope to resist have our work cut out for us."
—Andrew M. Bailey, Yale-NUS College

"Rickabaugh and Moreland have produced a tour de force in this brilliant, systematic case for contemporary forms of substance dualism. It is a treasure trove of arguments, objections, and replies that should be required reading in philosophy of mind today, challenging the current, ingrained prejudice against dualism."
—Charles Taliaferro, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, St. Olaf College

"Moreland and Rickabaugh have written the most comprehensive, up-to-date, and sophisticated defense of substance dualism available. They successfully tackle every anti-dualist argument in the literature, demonstrating both the variety of options available to dualists and the fruitfulness of the dualist framework for future scientific and philosophical research. Especially impressive is their e creative use of neo-Aristotelian, scholastic, and 19th-century sources (Brentano, Husserl) to develop an attractive synthesis of dualism with hylomorphism. They bring to philosophy of mind theoretical resources, including the metaphysics of mereology, that is tragically absent in today's debates."
—Robert C. Koons, University of Texas at Austin

"This is a stunning book. Rickabaugh and Moreland marshal a formidable phalanx of arguments for substance dualism as an account of consciousness and various aspects of the soul/mind and body relation. They provide persuasive answers to every common objection showing that contemporary Substance Dualism is philosophically superior and consistent with the latest cognitive science. No reasonable physicalists can ignore this book."
—C. Stephen Evans, Emeritus University Professor, Baylor University and Professorial Research Fellow, University of Notre Dame Australia

"Moreland and Rickabaugh's monograph is a first-rate treatment of the most important issues concerning the existence and nature of consciousness and the soul. I highly recommend it!"
—Stewart Goetz, Ross Frederick Wicks Distinguished Professor in Philosophy and Religion, Ursinus College

"This book is a tour de force on the topic of consciousness. Rickabaugh and Moreland offer a depth of analysis that interacts with the latest and best work on this topic in recent years."
—Joshua Rasmussen, Azusa Pacific University

"Can we explain the unity of consciousness, or our continuity over time, without the postulation of a simple, immaterial entity as the seat of human consciousness? Materialists and panpsychists hope we can, but The Substance of Consciousness raises powerful challenges to all of these attempts to explain the human mind 'on the cheap.' Anyone working on the philosophy of consciousness needs to confront these arguments and work out how to respond. It's not easy!"
—Philip Goff, Durham University

From the Publisher