The Language Of Substance Dualism

A brain without consciousness is like a mindless stone--it doesn't think, perceive, believe, or will anything.  And yet people regularly use imprecise and misleading language, sometimes summarizing their beings as "brain and body," which is a rather moronic description considering that the brain is just a part of the body.  A person could distinguish between the brain and another part of the human body, but the brain is just another organ within the body, and so distinguishing them beyond the aforementioned way is rather asinine.

And yet people do use substance dualist language a lot as well, substance dualism recognizing that the body and mind are metaphysically distinct, as I have explained before in other posts [1].  Every time someone says something like "My body" or "I thought" that person is distinguishing between his or her conscious mind/self and material body.  It is not as if all common phraseology mistakes the brain for something other than just another part of the body or consciousness for the brain.  But some people might also regularly alternate between philosophically/logically correct and incorrect references to their minds and bodies.

Of course, people who speak like this might have no idea what exactly they mean by their words.  They could be entirely oblivious to the enormous philosophical concepts and ramifications behind their words.  They might just talk a certain way because others around them do, having never actually considered what the words mean.  And yet on at least some occasions they speak in accordance with reality, whether they mean to or not.

Brains are not minds.  Even people who are not rational, critical thinkers sometimes seem to realize this on some level, hence the use of language described in the preceding paragraph, and yet this does not stop others from using the heinously inaccurate phrase "brain and body."  The next time someone says something like "My brain believes it," remember that brains don't and can't believe anything.  Conscious minds do.


[1].  See here:
A.  https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2017/10/consciousness-cannot-be-illusory.html
B.  https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2017/09/examining-meditations-part-6-mind-body.html