Hey all. I’m putting together the next podcast series, which at this stage will consist of three episodes. The theme will be philosophy of mind, and it’s going to go something like this: Episode one will be the introduction and overview of the subject as a subject in philosophy. I’ll look at the major categories of philosophy of mind on a continuum of strong dualism (for example, the received understanding of Descartes’ view), to what I would call weaker versions of dualism (most importantly, the Thomistic view) to views that I regard as somewhere in between the two poles (like emergent dualism or property dualism), to more “materialistic” views like nonreductive dualism, all the way through to hardcore epiphenominalism and eliminative materialism (yes, it’s going to be one of those episodes).
In episode 2 in the series I’ll be looking at some of the implications of these views that are of interest to me as a Christian with interests in philosophy. What (if anything) do the various views imply about important issues like free will and responsibility or the possibility of life after death? (Here I’ll draw a little on my paper that interacts with William Hasker’s emergent dualism, but it won’t all be about that view.)
In episode 3 in the series, while remaining with the subject of philosophical anthropology (the question of what a person is/is made of), I’ll be turning to biblical and theological considerations. What – if anything – does Scripture have to say directly about this subject. What are the implications of this subject for Christian doctrines or understandings of the Christian life? What role have diverging beliefs in this area played in the history of Christian theology?
It’s a subject that has interested me for some time (especially from a theological point of view), and I’m looking forward to getting into the philosophical side of things, some of which is new territory for me as well.
On another note, with my new microphone the sound quality is a lot better, but if I only offer low quality audio files I may as well still be using a cheap microphone! So I’ll be making the mp3 files for future episodes higher quality than I have been. I’ll start using a 96k bitrate, which is still fairly low for an mp3 file.