Q&A: The Psychophysical Problem
The Psychophysical Problem
Question
Hello Rabbi,
I understood that you are an interactionist dualist. My question is: how can there be a connection between different kinds of entities? How does that make sense rationally?
Answer
I didn’t understand the question. Just as there can be influence between material bodies, there can also be influence of the soul on a material body. What does that have to do with whether it makes sense to the intellect?
Discussion on Answer
As I said, I don’t understand what the problem is. So what if these are two different kinds of entities? Plastic and iron are also two different kinds of entities. You’re just stuck on this.
Plastic and iron are both matter. So it makes sense that they affect one another. But the spirit is not material. When exactly does the spirit enter the body and influence it? And how exactly does that happen? If I’m not mistaken, Leibowitz thought this was an unsolvable paradox.
Not a paradox, not even close. The only problem is with the laws of physics, which describe only influences between material entities. And indeed, such influence goes beyond physics, and there is nothing surprising about that, since this is a non-physical entity. What does that have to do with a paradox?
How can the spirit influence the material body? How exactly does that happen? After all, these are two completely different kinds of entities.
I understand that we do experience such influence, but how can there be an intellectual explanation for it beyond our experience?