Q&A: Dualism
Dualism
Question
Hello Rabbi,
I haven’t found an explicit discussion of this topic from you. How can one explain the existence of the soul, given that we know all emotional processes depend on chemicals in the brain? If we see that when part of the brain is damaged, behavior changes, how can we say that there is a soul that is responsible for our behavior?
Thank you,
Meir.
Answer
I discussed this at length in my book The Science of Freedom. Briefly: if there is a source of light that passes through a prism, then when you change the prism the light will change. Does that mean there is no light source, only a prism?
The soul, or the intellect, uses the brain and the body. Therefore, when the body changes, the result changes. But that does not mean the body is the source of the behavior.
By the same token, when our legs are injured we do not walk. Does that mean the legs do the walking? The body walks by means of the legs.