Sárospataki Füzetek 14. (2010)
2010 / 1. szám - TANULMÁNYOK - Byl, John: Világnézetek háborúja: a keresztyénség és kihívói.
Byl. John • How do non-physical factors influence the mind? • What transforms mental choice to physical action? 3. Mind to math • Why should we trust our minds? • How can non-physical absolutes exist? • How can “is” give rise to “ought”? • How do we access universal truths? • Why is math applicable to the material world? Materialism has great difficulty explaining the mere existence of mind, let alone its rationality. It has no place for non-physical things such as logic, mathematics, or abstract knowledge. It can “resolve” Penrose’s three mysteries only by dismissing the mental and mathematical worlds as illusions. Penrose himself is not a materialist. He takes the mathematical realm as the most real, the other two worlds being mere shadows of it. Yet, Penrose comes no closer to resolving his mysteries. Nor do other forms of naturalism or post-modernity. The danger of self-refutation Naturalism faces also the danger of self-refutation. Consider the following assertion by Nobel-prize winning biologist Sir Francis Crick: The Astonishing Hypothesis is that “You”, your joys and your sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behaviour of a vast assembly of nerve cells.. .9 Crick believes that all your thoughts and beliefs are just illusions, caused by nerve cells. There is something strange about this assertion. If all your beliefs are illusions caused by brain neurons, as Crick believes, where does that leave Crick’s belief that all beliefs are illusions? Or consider the following statement by philosopher Derk Pereboom: Given our best scientific theories, factors beyond our control ultimately produce all our actions .. ..we are therefore not morally responsible for them.10 Pereboom contends that our actions are wholly governed by the laws of physics. Hence we are not morally responsible for any of them. Thus a murderer, for example, should not be held morally accountable for killing. Therefore Pereboom urges that judges should not give him a severe punishment, such as death or prison confinement. Instead, the courts should aim at modifying his criminal behaviour, perhaps through rehabilitation programs. Leaving aside the perplexing question of how moral and rational oughts can function in a world completely determined by physical laws, Pereboom’s reasoning still seems incoherent. He affirms that, even though we are not morally responsible 9 Crick, Francis: The Astonishing Hypothsis. New York, Touchstone, 1994. 3. 10 Pereboom, Derk: Tiring Without Tree Will. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2001. 1. 34 SÁROS PATA KI FÜZETEK
