Swinburne and O'Connor on Neuroscience and the Soul (Full Interview)

CCT Associate Director Steve Porter interviews Richard Swinburne (Emeritus Nolloth Professor of the Christian Religion, Oxford University) and Tim O'Connor (Professor of Philosophy, Indiana University) on neuroscience and the soul.

[JeansiByxan]

Swinburne’s lucid reasoning is rare among today’s academics.

[LLiimmzz]

I love these conversations between brethren; watching in 2017!

[ojibwayinca]

I always think these kinds of discussions should just lead with answering the question on what source of knowledge holds greatest epistemic authority.
It's clear that Tim is guided by a heavier reliance upon the scientific enterprise. I chuckled how Tim dances so articulately around his explanation that we are only physical organisms. I'm watching this screaming in my mind, "Just be straightforward and say that you think we're just physical organisms and nothing more!"

[pantonal]

And if that weren't enough, Swinburne knew victory was assured when the other guy showed up in sandals :(

[gfujigo]

Idealism is the answer. Bernardo Kastrup lays it out nicely. Very compatible with the truth of Christianity.

[tamaking]

Chinese Christian philosopher Watchman Nee clearly described humans as being tripartite, reflecting the trinitarian nature of God and paralleling the 3 states of matter ( solid liquid gas) etc.
He described us as having a Body, Soul and Spirit and each of these having tripartite subdivisions. . The body is self explanatory. The Spirit relates to our communication with God, Conscience, Communion etc and the Soul (Will, emotions, Mind) is our person and the meeting place of body and spirit. 40 years since I looked at this but it's very much worth looking at, insightful and withstands scrutiny.

[parakeethands]

I only scrolled down to see the comments made concerning the fellow with sandals.

[lourak]

Oconnors view is seriously vulnerable to a key challenge: What support does he present for his claim that this"emergent" property of mental states cannot be reduced to physical states, if they do not exist as a soul or a separate autonomous entity? It seems he wants to have his cake and eat it too...

[Mentat]

Not only is there confusion over how to interpret Aristotle's distinction between the soul and the rational intellect, but more importantly I don't see how this would instantly resolve the problems Swinburne and O'Connor are discussing, as you imply it would. But, then, I never spent much time on hylomorphism. Can you please elaborate on its contribution to this discussion?

[tamaking]

Richard clearly articulated in plain english what he believes.When asked to spell out hat his view is, Tim talked a whole lot of gobbledegook that didn't really seem like a clear view of anything.

[ubergenie]

I love Swinburne but his constant looking at the ground when he talks is a little disconcerting. He is probably kinesthetic in his neuro processing (according to NLP) but I need some eye contact please!

[askaphilosopherable]

Swinburne wins because of his hair cut.

[bonajab]

I think that while my soul is connected to or assigned to my body, I use my brain to think. I cannot think without it. If my brain is injured, my ability to think will be inhibited. It's the same for any other member of my body. If my eyes are destroyed I can't see. If I become a quadriplegic, I can't use my arms and legs. But, some day I'll die. Jesus said that if I am not born again, my body and my soul will go to hell. There, I would continue to use my brain to think. If I'm born again, I am given a spirit. In that case, I would use my spirit to think. To be honest, I'm just thinking out loud.

[Kaschelott]

This is southern California, so what's wrong with sandals? Would you rather see him in gum-boots? His hair cut is perfectly fine in my view and so is his voice. Whereas the interviewer seems kind of uninterested, and Richard Swinburne absent-minded. Nothing against Swinburne, really, but I wouldn't have watched this if he'd been alone.

[FeelFreeProteinPots]

Soul ? Surly it's just consciousness

[quacksmuch]

Man, the more I listen to “religious people, ” especially the more intelligent they are, the more I’m convinced that delusion and religion can’t be separated no matter how intelligent we are.

[angelaluciam]

Christianity, alike those other 2 Semite religions, pretends that merely one
single human life does exist, and that only thanks to some Jew, (born some
2000 years ago), including his 'sacrifice to save' one's individual SELF-Soul,
one is able to reincarnate ... somewhere. There is a huge difference between
this non-physical (!), timeless and aware wisdom of one's intuitive, only felt
SELF-Soul and one's physical brain's mind-consciousness, this 'Holy spirit'
of matter, always dying. That's why Christianity insists that one has to be
"SELF(-Soul)-less, emphasizing this egocentrism of it's theological elites.
Continuously this word-concept of one's eternal SELF-SOUL and one's short-
lived, conscious human EGO is exchanged, to augment faiths-confusions.