Dualism is traditionally thought to be the belief that matter and mind are separate things. However, I have this belief that while matter causes mind to emerge, nonetheless they are separate entities. So, to give an example, I believe that while dopamine secretion causes pleasure, pleasure is a subjective state which is not identical to dopamine secretion. I believe that most laypeople intuitively have this belief. So, is there a standard name in the philosophical literature for this mild form of dualism?
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"Intuitivism" ?– Scott RoweCommented Aug 2, 2023 at 20:00
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1Common sense? Being reasonable?? Yeah it's getting rarer nowadays... Note: I make no claim on (ultimate) ontology; just that treating materiality & 'consciousness-icality' as two fundamental terms of our world seems eminently sensible– RushiCommented Aug 3, 2023 at 3:59
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1 Answer
This is called Emergentism, specifically emergentism with regards to physicalism, the idea that the mental is composed wholly of the physical, but not reducible to it.
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/properties-emergent/
In general, an emergent system is one where the whole cannot be entirely understood or best described by reference to its parts.
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1Karl Popper, in “The Self and It’s Brain” is the most prominent advocate of emergent dualism.– DcleveCommented Aug 2, 2023 at 20:36
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2Indeed, Karl Popper was a realist through and through: he thought that ideas were real and effective, and hence important. Evidently, this is the only rational position for a philosopher, for if ideas are unimportant, then why should one think, or speak? This said, Popper believed in a triune world: 1) matter, 2) mind, and 3) ideas; the latter in his view exist independently from minds.– Olivier5Commented Aug 2, 2023 at 21:03
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@Olivier5 if it is the only rational position for a philosopher, then it makes ot very easy to tell which philosophers are rational. That's helpful! Commented Aug 3, 2023 at 10:31
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@Scott Rowe Philosophers are merely human, and some of them are faking it. Just like some politicians, some businessmen, some scientists or some priests are fake... And yes, logical coherence can be used to judge which philosophies and philosophers stay within the realm of logic, and which don't. Liars often contradict themselves.– Olivier5Commented Aug 4, 2023 at 6:28