Thank you so much for reading! You are the first commenter who seems to have fully gotten what I'm after. If you like the "I'm here now!" aspect of holism, you might appreciate my essay on presence. https://kurtkeefner.substack.com/p/presence?r=7cant Also, would you consider subscribing (for free) so that you can see the other things I'm doing with personal holism?
A somewhat muddled theory, though the premise is sound enough, with more work.
Might have been more effective to compare the human animals to non-human animals, the latter easily claiming the mantle of holistic animality. Humans are anomalous, ostensibly NOT holistic. Humans are murderous and compassionate, dumb and brilliant, adoring but not adorable (Santayana), driven and lazy, admirable and despicable, etc. You get the point: humans are inherently contradictory, easily falling into mind-body imbalances. You need to address how humans are different — how they easily fall from the grace of holism, compared to other animals, who are well described by your theory, but alas, don’t need philosophy at all.
You didn’t really need to debunk Descartes and his ilk; that’s been done already ad nauseum. New versions e.g. transhumanists you posed were a straw man that pose little threat of retrenchment of Descartes’ paradigm. Stay alert, but the mind-body con is old news.
Your examples fall flat. You say they illustrate philosophical error but you also note that they may be psychological problems that are beyond your ken.
Philosophy is mostly literature that is wise, and rarely therapeutic.
Thanks for a thoughtful comment, even if I disagree with it!
I think the fundamental problem you're having with my essay is that you don't see who my audience is. I'm not primarily writing for people well-schooled in the history of philosophy. Descartes may have been debunked (although there are still Cartesian philosophers), but I would claim that many people are dualists of one sort or another without even knowing it. For them, I need to flush Descartes out into the open and take him down.
Brain-body dualism and "I am a program" dualism are in the ascendency today. When I posted a link to this essay on the atheism subreddit, a number of people commented that we are just meat with a self-aware brain. What a terrible attitude to take toward yourself! There is also a "foundation" called Blaustein that claims they can upload your consciousness into a computer. Not a strawman.
I don't think my examples fall flat, although I can only go into so much detail in one essay. I think a lot of people feel guilty or cavalier or repressed because of what they see as the relationship of their consciousness and body.
I grant you that philosophy is rarely therapeutic. I am trying to change that, and I think I'm off to a good start. I can point you to other essays on my Substack where I follow up on this.
I came from Reddit! Great Work!
Reading you’re obliteration of consciousness, actually connected me to the present. I felt what you meant.
I exist! I’m here now!
Personally, I read a lot of Carl Jung which seems to be kinda like dualism from your perspective.
Thank you so much for reading! You are the first commenter who seems to have fully gotten what I'm after. If you like the "I'm here now!" aspect of holism, you might appreciate my essay on presence. https://kurtkeefner.substack.com/p/presence?r=7cant Also, would you consider subscribing (for free) so that you can see the other things I'm doing with personal holism?
Also a redditor and a fan of Zen Buddhism which also seeks to obliterate dualism. My lone objection to your essay is quoting Ayn Rand.
When she’s right, she’s right!
A somewhat muddled theory, though the premise is sound enough, with more work.
Might have been more effective to compare the human animals to non-human animals, the latter easily claiming the mantle of holistic animality. Humans are anomalous, ostensibly NOT holistic. Humans are murderous and compassionate, dumb and brilliant, adoring but not adorable (Santayana), driven and lazy, admirable and despicable, etc. You get the point: humans are inherently contradictory, easily falling into mind-body imbalances. You need to address how humans are different — how they easily fall from the grace of holism, compared to other animals, who are well described by your theory, but alas, don’t need philosophy at all.
You didn’t really need to debunk Descartes and his ilk; that’s been done already ad nauseum. New versions e.g. transhumanists you posed were a straw man that pose little threat of retrenchment of Descartes’ paradigm. Stay alert, but the mind-body con is old news.
Your examples fall flat. You say they illustrate philosophical error but you also note that they may be psychological problems that are beyond your ken.
Philosophy is mostly literature that is wise, and rarely therapeutic.
Thanks for a thoughtful comment, even if I disagree with it!
I think the fundamental problem you're having with my essay is that you don't see who my audience is. I'm not primarily writing for people well-schooled in the history of philosophy. Descartes may have been debunked (although there are still Cartesian philosophers), but I would claim that many people are dualists of one sort or another without even knowing it. For them, I need to flush Descartes out into the open and take him down.
Brain-body dualism and "I am a program" dualism are in the ascendency today. When I posted a link to this essay on the atheism subreddit, a number of people commented that we are just meat with a self-aware brain. What a terrible attitude to take toward yourself! There is also a "foundation" called Blaustein that claims they can upload your consciousness into a computer. Not a strawman.
I don't think my examples fall flat, although I can only go into so much detail in one essay. I think a lot of people feel guilty or cavalier or repressed because of what they see as the relationship of their consciousness and body.
I grant you that philosophy is rarely therapeutic. I am trying to change that, and I think I'm off to a good start. I can point you to other essays on my Substack where I follow up on this.
Ok, a worthy project, but sounds a bit like whack a mole. 😏
I enjoy a good game of whack a mole!