Uploaded February 2025 | Updated September 2026, 17 hours ago
Ralph Stefan Weir joins me to discuss the myth of the interaction problem, the connection between theism and the soul, the implausibility of property dualism, substance dualism in Eastern thought, the causal closure argument and energy conservation, a posteriori necessities, modal rationalism, panpsychism and idealism, personal identity, transhumanism, mind-uploading, split brain cases, whether souls are eternal, and much else.
Dr. Weir is the author of The Mind-Body Problem and Metaphysics: An Argument from Consciousness to Mental Substance published by Routledge. He teaches philosophy at the University of Lincoln and is an Associate Member of the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford.
My episode about ghosts referred to around the 23 minute mark: podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/78-ghosts-yeah-why-not-ghosts/id1474408172?i=1000678827707
Dustin Crummett's interview with Dr. Weir youtube.com/watch?v=Xq9u6erSF24
The Mind-Body Problem and Metaphysics: An Argument from Consciousness to Mental Substance amazon.com/Mind-Body-Problem-Metaphysics-Consciousness-Contemporary-ebook/dp/B0C62ZLS33?ref_=ast_author_dp
Linktree https://linktr.ee/emersongreen (ways to support the podcast can be found on my linktree)
Subscribe to Walden Pod on iTunes podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/walden-pod/id1474408172
00:00 Introduction
5:50 Religion and Dualism
16:19 Dualism Across Cultures
24:37 The Interaction Problem, Causal Exclusion, Energy Conservation
1:09:53 Arguing from Consciousness to Mental Substance
1:30:34 The Disembodiment Argument, Modal Rationalism
2:23:47 The Parity Argument, Multiple Realizability
2:57:50 Transhumanism, Mind-Uploading, Open Individualism
3:13:14 Split Brains and Epistemic Impoverishment
3:22:42 Are souls eternal? Am I a necessary being?
Ralph Stefan Weir joins me to discuss the myth of the interaction problem, the connection between theism and the soul, the implausibility of property dualism, substance dualism in Eastern thought, the causal closure argument and energy conservation, a posteriori necessities, modal rationalism, panpsychism and idealism, personal identity, transhumanism, mind-uploading, split brain cases, whether souls are eternal, and much else.
Dr. Weir is the author of The Mind-Body Problem and Metaphysics: An Argument from Consciousness to Mental Substance published by Routledge. He teaches philosophy at the University of Lincoln and is an Associate Member of the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford.
My episode about ghosts referred to around the 23 minute mark: podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/78-ghosts-yeah-why-not-ghosts/id1474408172?i=1000678827707
Dustin Crummett's interview with Dr. Weir youtube.com/watch?v=Xq9u6erSF24
The Mind-Body Problem and Metaphysics: An Argument from Consciousness to Mental Substance amazon.com/Mind-Body-Problem-Metaphysics-Consciousness-Contemporary-ebook/dp/B0C62ZLS33?ref_=ast_author_dp
Linktree https://linktr.ee/emersongreen (ways to support the podcast can be found on my linktree)
Subscribe to Walden Pod on iTunes podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/walden-pod/id1474408172
00:00 Introduction
5:50 Religion and Dualism
16:19 Dualism Across Cultures
24:37 The Interaction Problem, Causal Exclusion, Energy Conservation
1:09:53 Arguing from Consciousness to Mental Substance
1:30:34 The Disembodiment Argument, Modal Rationalism
2:23:47 The Parity Argument, Multiple Realizability
2:57:50 Transhumanism, Mind-Uploading, Open Individualism
3:13:14 Split Brains and Epistemic Impoverishment
3:22:42 Are souls eternal? Am I a necessary being?


![Schopenhauer on Mind & Matter
Arthur Schopenhauer developed a fascinating version of dual-aspect monism, according to which from outside, the world appears as representation, but from inside, it appears as will: ontological monism and epistemological dualism. To Schopenhauer, desire-driven will is what we are from inside, and he goes on to argue that we should think of the underlying reality of all appearance in the same way. You represent my will as a body, but there’s an underlying reality to your representation that’s experiential in character. Schopenhauer thinks the basis of this dual-aspect character of reality pervades the natural world, organic and inorganic. Why? Because this is our only form of insight into—or acquaintance with—anything as a thing in itself.
We also discuss the connection between Nietzsche and Schopenhauer, whether Schopenhauer is an idealist or a panpsychist, and explore a couple arguments for panpsychism.
“[O]n the path of objective knowledge, thus starting from the representation, we shall never get beyond the representation...We shall therefore remain at the outside of things; we shall never be able to penetrate into their inner nature, and investigate what they are in themselves…So far, I agree with Kant. But … we ourselves are the thing-in-itself. Consequently, a way from within stands open to us to that real inner nature of things to which we cannot penetrate from without. It is, so to speak, a subterranean passage, a secret alliance, which, as if by treachery, places us all at once in the fortress that could not be taken by attack from without.”
SHOWNOTES, LINKS, & REFERENCES: https://audioboom.com/posts/7758773-33-schopenhauer-on-mind-matter
Transcript https://emersongreenblog.wordpress.com/2020/12/23/schopenhauer-on-mind-matter/
Follow on Twitter @waldenpod and @OnPanpsychism
Listen to Counter Apologetics here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/counter-apologetics/id1273573417?mt=2
Listen to Walden Pod here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/walden-pod/id1474408172
/ timestamps /
00:00 Schopenhauers personality
02:23 Will and Representation
10:15 Panpsychism and the key to movement
16:46 A subterranean passage
20:27 Different sides of the same mountain Schopenhauer on Mind & Matter](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/TG3TRQ94KjE/mqdefault.jpg)







