This is an interesting idea! I’m reminded of the fact that the intuitive human belief in dualism may rise from the interaction of two different core reasoning systems: a system for reasoning about inert objects and another for reasoning about agents.
Object are assumed to move as a unit, interact with one another only through contact, and be set into motion only when acted on through direct contact, whereas things that are classified as agents are expected to exhibit autonomous, goal-directed behavior. Seeing or thinking about a human causes us to perceive there being two entities in the same space: a body (object) and a soul (agent). Under this model, the object system would classify the body as something that only moves when being ordered to by an external force, requiring an agent in the form of a mind/soul being the “unmoved mover” that initiates the movement.
Now obviously not all of us are dualists, so one can still come to understanding that gets past this “hardwired” intuition; but it does suggest that one could relatively easily construct cognitive systems whose underlying reasoning assumptions locked them into some kind of dualistic belief.
This is an interesting idea! I’m reminded of the fact that the intuitive human belief in dualism may rise from the interaction of two different core reasoning systems: a system for reasoning about inert objects and another for reasoning about agents.
Object are assumed to move as a unit, interact with one another only through contact, and be set into motion only when acted on through direct contact, whereas things that are classified as agents are expected to exhibit autonomous, goal-directed behavior. Seeing or thinking about a human causes us to perceive there being two entities in the same space: a body (object) and a soul (agent). Under this model, the object system would classify the body as something that only moves when being ordered to by an external force, requiring an agent in the form of a mind/soul being the “unmoved mover” that initiates the movement.
Now obviously not all of us are dualists, so one can still come to understanding that gets past this “hardwired” intuition; but it does suggest that one could relatively easily construct cognitive systems whose underlying reasoning assumptions locked them into some kind of dualistic belief.