Supposedly one can now be a materialist and hold that the mind is software instantiated on the hardware of the brain. That’s an extremely useful premise if you’re a philosopher or a psychologist who doesn’t want to crack open a biology textbook.
But computer programmers don’t need to understand the hardware, either. Do you think they crack open metallurgy, electronics, and applied physics textbooks to accomplish their goals?
If you don’t need to understand every level of hardware to manipulate electronic computational devices, why do you think anyone would need to understand the physics all the way down to deal with the mind?
It’s not dualism. It’s just a distinction between levels of implementation.
If you don’t need to understand every level of hardware to manipulate electronic computational devices, why do you think anyone would need to understand the physics all the way down to deal with the mind?
It’s not dualism. It’s just a distinction between levels of implementation.