Ralph Stefan Weir, The Phenomenal Argument for Mental Substance

This talk was delivered at the conference Dualism in the Twenty-First Century, which took place at the Central European University, Budapest on 6-8 December 2018. This event was organised by the Humane Philosophy Project and supported by the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion, University of Oxford, the John Templeton Foundation, the Institute of Philosophy, University of Warsaw, the Central European University, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the Ruhr University Bochum, and the School of History and Heritage, University of Lincoln.

[@user-lv9gm3fe6j]

"I mean, it's an *alright* argument."

[@MonisticIdealism]

This is a superb talk, I could not agree more with the conclusion: anti-physicalists must make up their mind between substance dualism and idealism. Those who think property dualism, panpsychism, neutral monism etc. will help them avoid this dichotomy fail to understand the nature of substance and properties.

[@CMVMic]

Doesnt this argument assume there are only two categories of being i.e. the physical (spinoza's extension) and the mental? However, that may very well be a false dichotomy. Also, why can't more than one property be bundled under one substance? Phenomenal conservatism has its own problems. Why not remain skeptical if there is no way to reliably solve the problem of the criterion or address Munchaussen's Trilemma without begging the question?

[@MonisticIdealism]

@@CMVMic I've told you before in another comment on another video that I'm open to hearing someone present another category of being if they've got one. But as I've stated before, if they're holding to a non-mental monism then they will face problems that I've pointed out in my videos. If they try to reduce the mental to this other non-mental substance then that's going to encounter a version of the hard problem of consciousness. If they don't reduce the mental then I argue that they will lapse into a form of substance dualism since irreducible mental properties require an irreducible substance to bear them as Dr. Weir pointed out in this video. I guess I'm just skeptical of skepticism.

[@NicolausNotabene]

Hylomorphism is one example@@MonisticIdealism