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• W803014776 abstract "REIMAGINING THE SOUL: AFTERLIFE IN THE AGE OF MATTER by Douglas Stokes. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2014. Pp. viii + 206 (paperback). ISBN 978-0-7864-7707-4. Experimental psychologist Douglas Stokes tells us in his preface that his book explores conceptions of the soul and the afterlife that are consistent with the findings of modern science. He discusses many different conceptions of the afterlife, with the goal of determining which may be actually true. I found much in this book that is admirable. author demonstrates vast erudition, discussing relevant topics as diverse as cosmology, quantum mechanics, parapsychology, philosophy of mind, and the world's religions. Stokes makes it clear from the outset that he rejects the doctrine of eliminative materialism: Modern and philosophers appear to be finally abandoning the untenable position of radical, eliminative materialism like proverbial rats leaving a sinking ship.... However, some modern and philosophers, such as Daniel Dennett, Susan Blackmore, Thomas Metzinger, Paul Churchland, his wife Patricia Churchland, and Bruce Hood, deny the very existence of continuing selves, or Cartesian theaters, as these self-proclaimed skeptics disparagingly call them. (Perhaps these writers are not conscious beings, which might explain the quality of their thought processes.).... To most people the existence of a continuing self is immediately given and cannot be doubted. Any theory that denies the existence of any centers of consciousness is quite simply wrong, (pp. 5, 20) Stokes also displays a good grasp of modern physics, noting that: Since the emergence of quantum mechanics early in the last century, the brain is no longer viewed as a deterministic system and seemingly agrees with the implication that only indeterministic systems are associated with consciousness, as conscious minds would be of no use to a mechanistic system (p. 63). He correctly describes how modern physics has had little impact on the thinking of materialistic philosophers such as those mentioned above, and he shows historical insight, noting that The tenacity with which some resist the idea of an autonomous realm of mind is perhaps understandable in the light of history.... Any mention of an immaterial soul may give rise to fears in many of a descent back into religious irrationalism (and a consequent lack of funding) (p. 47). Stokes states in his introduction that the central arguments of his book not depend on parapsychological evidence such as hauntings, claimed memories of previous lives, and ostensible messages from the dead provided by mediums or in dreams, as these findings are not accepted by mainstream scientists (p. 5). Claims similar to this--most are skeptical, rejected by mainstream science, etc.--are made repeatedly throughout this book (I counted eight times) as an excuse to dismiss what seems to me as the most relevant evidence that could be brought to bear on the question of survival, and they lend a curious conformist timidity to the author's writing. I will have more to say about this later. Instead, Stokes reviews materialism, idealism, and dualism, considers them briefly in terms of physics and neuroscience, and settles on the doctrine of panpsychism--the idea that consciousness pervades the universe and may be possessed by entities as tiny as an electron: Panpsychism finesses the intractable philosophical problem of accounting for how consciousness could arise from insensate matter. It didn't. It was there all along. It was there at the Creation (i.e. Big Bang) and perhaps even before that (as part of whatever collective mind or agent set up the current laws of physics and then somehow caused an explosion to make them so), (p. 64) But Stokes rejects the idea of personal survival: A mountain of evidence amassed by neuroscientists over the past few decades demonstrates the fundamental dependence of memories and personality traits on the state of the physical brain. …" @default.
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