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Immaterial Minds

How certain are you that immaterial minds exist/have existed?

  • I am about 100% certain that immaterial minds exist/have existed

    Votes: 1 8.3%
  • I am about 75% certain that immaterial minds exist/have existed

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • I am about 50% certain that (or suspend my judgment on whether) immaterial minds exist/have existed

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • I am about 75% certain that immaterial minds have never existed

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • I am about 100% certain that immaterial minds have never existed

    Votes: 8 66.7%
  • The question is poorly defined or nonsensical

    Votes: 3 25.0%

  • Total voters
    12

Ella S.

Dispassionate Goth
I have looked at a variety of definitions for what a deity is and a great deal of them seem to refer to an immaterial mind.

Even definitions like an "absolute principle" frequently define this "absolute principle" as a "Supreme Being" that is independent from matter.

Even definitions that call a deity an "anthropomorphic force of nature," the anthropomorphic properties it takes on are usually mental ones like awareness or anger and by "force" it means that it is not composed of matter

So I'm interested in your thoughts on how likely it is that immaterial minds exist.
 

Heyo

Veteran Member
So I'm interested in your thoughts on how likely it is that immaterial minds exist.
If they do, some of the most basic laws of nature must be wrong, e.g. First Law of Thermodynamics. There is not even a hint that that might be the case.
 

Kfox

Well-Known Member
I have looked at a variety of definitions for what a deity is and a great deal of them seem to refer to an immaterial mind.

Even definitions like an "absolute principle" frequently define this "absolute principle" as a "Supreme Being" that is independent from matter.

Even definitions that call a deity an "anthropomorphic force of nature," the anthropomorphic properties it takes on are usually mental ones like awareness or anger and by "force" it means that it is not composed of matter

So I'm interested in your thoughts on how likely it is that immaterial minds exist.
That is like asking how likely do "widgets" exist. If this mind is not material, what is it? And what makes it different than material?
 

Ella S.

Dispassionate Goth
That is like asking how likely do "widgets" exist. If this mind is not material, what is it? And what makes it different than material?

A variety of immaterial substances have been postulated in religion.

I would also say that we know of a variety of immaterial phenomenon already, such as the four fundamental forces and heat.
 

Heyo

Veteran Member
So I'm interested in your thoughts on how likely it is that immaterial minds exist.
Just to expand of my opinion from above that immaterial minds don't exist, that is the answer to your question how you asked it.
The answer to the question without context is that all minds are immaterial. The mind is a function of the brain.
What doesn't exist is an immaterial brain or a mind that doesn't need a physical brain.
 

Ella S.

Dispassionate Goth
Just to expand of my opinion from above that immaterial minds don't exist, that is the answer to your question how you asked it.
The answer to the question without context is that all minds are immaterial. The mind is a function of the brain.
What doesn't exist is an immaterial brain or a mind that doesn't need a physical brain.

I agree. This is something I thought about after posting and I wasn't sure if I should clarify. I'm glad you brought it up.
 

Kfox

Well-Known Member
A variety of immaterial substances have been postulated in religion.

I would also say that we know of a variety of immaterial phenomenon already, such as the four fundamental forces and heat.
Yes; those are energy. The Universe is said to be made up of matter and energy. (I should haver included energy also) So if this mind is not material or energy, what is it?
 

Yerda

Veteran Member
I've read idealist philosophers and found it fun and wacky to entertain the possibility that all of reality is mental in nature, but when it comes right down to the nitty gritty I'm not sure there's anywhere to run with it. I'd like to know how minds work and I've never heard an idealist (or pansychist) theory on that subject.

If you're interested Bernardo Kastrup does a good job of presenting an idealist metaphysics that would presuppose that all minds are immaterial.
 

Copernicus

Industrial Strength Linguist
I think that the question should be reformulated as "disembodied minds", since the real question is whether a mind can exist independently of a physical substrate that gives rise to it. Given the evidence we have about the relationship between brains and minds, brain activity gives rise to mental activity. When brain activity stops, mental activity stops. Consciousness is just a type of mental activity, since brains still operate while we are unconscious. When the brain is destroyed, mental activity ceases, and the mind it causes no longer continues to exist.
 
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