"Do we need to stop at Wal-Mart for school supplies?"
Getting an answer to a question like this from my son always feels to me like pulling teeth. So today I tried a picture. Think of yourself as a body with you inside, your "soul."
Now think of your soul having three parts: a mind that thinks, feelings, and your will. Your will is the part of you that makes choices, that makes the decisions. Your will can go with your feelings or your will can go with your mind.
So let's say your mind knows you need paper for school but your feelings don't want to go to Wal-Mart. Your feelings want to go home and watch TV or play Call of Duty. Your will is what makes the decisions.
The person who turns out to be happiest in life is the person whose will chooses with their mind and what they know is the thing they should do.
Of course all these things--mind, feelings, and will--are ultimately functions of the brain which is part of the body. What function a detachable soul might play is the stuff of fun discussions. These are true pictures, not literal ones.
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9 comments:
Is "Wal-Mart", then, the problem for the will? Maybe Meijer would have been a better choice? Was that possible for you as the Dad to give that option to your child?
I think the problem might be that there was no prior foresight or preparation to have paper for tomorrow ;-) !!! Then, the will has chosen to be wise/prudent and prepare for the future.
Oh, I get it, about the "soul part"...it is physicalism...what one does, is what one is. Behavior before belief...
I don't think everyone's Jungian personas (ennegram) would affirm 'behavior before belief'.
Learning that my mind is always virtuous and always to be trusted makes me happy already. :-)
This was for a 12 year old ;-)
https://apps.facebook.com/wpsocialreader/me/channels/trending/content/vkitI?fb_source=hovercard
This article is about the Internet's "soul"! via the Washington Post!
JohnM
If you choose virtue ethics, that is your choice....:-)! What model of virtue are you using, or "form of character traits" would be considered virtuous? Would that be measurable by someone, or is that a matter of personal value itself?
Ken,
BTW, isn't it the age of 13 that Judiasm has the "rite of passage" with a Bar Mitzpah to commerate entrance into adulthood?
I think that it is important to give children "rites of passage", meaning not just formal, but earning certain rights as they get older and prove responsible. I think even giving a 5 year old two choices about the outfits she might wear to school is good to develop self confidence in their ability to make choices and not fear making a wrong choice, etc.!!1
Just got done reading "Nature's Witness: How Evolution Can Inspire Faith" by Daniel Harrell (Living Theology series). Honest and accessible. He seems to argue for a fully integrated mind-soul-spirit. We can scientifically measure parts of the brain that light up during religious experiences... it sounds heretical to think the soul "resides" in the brain, but of course that's my cultural (or whatever) bias being confronted with new and conflicting information.
I think one would have to adopt some sort of soul-sleep position, in the Christian sense, as there is never a disembodied soul.
I am responding to someone whose comment didn't get posted.
Since religious experience can "light up the brain", does that justify abusing protections under law? meaning that the ends (neuroscience)justifies the means (submitting people to experiments via political oppression, instead of granting political choice) so that Neuroscience can get their stats to defend a particular hypothesis/theory
I don't know how else you can do such research as to experience, as labs are controlled environments..
I read today that exposing someone to another 'ingroup" would change the brain. How do they carry out such experiements, as obviously, a particular ingroup wouldn't be prone to infilterate another ingroup willingly....
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