In a number of writings, I deny both the monisms of matter and spirit or thought. I also deny the dualism of body/soul, brain/mind, etc. Yet, I use the terms ‘soul’ and ‘mind’ on a regular basis. What gives?
I think of being as richer than ‘mere’ matter, yet, I see no reason to speak of other substances being ‘present’ to us, such as ‘mind-stuff’ or ‘soul-stuff’. Mind and soul exist but not as many would think. There are at least two ways I’m exploring to deal with this issue:
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Mind and soul describe relationships in which substance participates.
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Mind and soul refer to higher or more abstract levels of created being, levels closer to the manifested truths from which this universe is shaped: the Primordial Universe.
I think the second way of speaking will be more fruitful though I’m not sure that the two ways of speaking are truly separate. Still, the second way allows a richness of discourse which invites an acceptance of the ultimate unity of all Creation, not just this particular universe and not even just this particular universe and the abstract truths which play a direct role in it, but also all other ‘universes’ which God might have shaped from the Primordial Universe.
My language will upset some but I take ‘universe’ to be a phase of Creation which is self-contained in a meaningful sense I won’t explore here. There are some problems with this, or any, definition of ‘universe’ including the problem that physical cosmology tells us that there can be vast regions of this universe which we can’t observe, though parts of those regions come into observational ‘range’ each second. There is also the strange possibility that some parts of this universe might not have ever been in causal contact.
More importantly, all of Creation is united in a very fundamental sense because the Primordial Universe, the first ‘creature’ so to speak, is the source of all created being. The more abstract levels of reality are closer to that Primordial Universe.
The richness of created being is due not to multiplicity but rather to depth.
Creatures, including human beings, are not ‘only’ their bodies but also those abstract truths about being which have been discovered about the stuff of our bodies by Maxwell and Planck and Dirac and Godel. We are, so to speak, made of theorems from differential geometry and Dirac delta-functions as much as we’re made of protons and electrons. Those abstract thoughts of human theoretical sciences are our current best understanding of more abstract levels of created being. Protons and electrons are more immediate levels of that same created being. When we use terms like ‘abstract’ and ‘theoretical’, we should remember that Einstein’s mathematical and heuristic works of theoretical physics explored the same being as the laboratory work which tries to develop new materials for computer circuitry.
Acts of Being » Blog Archive » Some Problems with Substance/Form Dualism
[…] This entry is a supplement to Not Monism and Not Dualism but Unity of Creation. […]