Zadok Paper S100 Winter 1999
The Nature of Humans-Mind and Brain; Body, Soul and Spirit
by Alan Gijspers

Questions for discussion

1. Is the scientific paradigm sufficient for understanding the mind-brain relationship or do we need a wider view of knowledge? What are the limitations and checks on such a wider understanding?

2. Monism is just another form of reductionism and ultimately positivist materialism. How can Jeeves and Mackay be associated with them? What differences are there between their position and the monists?

3. What are the strengths and limitations of the model of the mind-brain model as a computer in which the mind is the software and the brain is the hardware?

4. Would there be the benefits in reviving the concept of the soul as a distinct entity in our culture? What are the dangers?

5. Is the current resurgence of interest in 'spirituality', especially as a therapeutic tool, welcome to scientists who are Christian or an unscientific distraction and an embarrassment to their scientific credibility?

6. Chaos theory is sometimes put forward as a way of allowing 'loose ends' within which an organism may be influenced from the 'top down'. Is chaos theory a satisfactory explanation? What alternatives are there?

7. Will we ever develop computers with minds? If so will they have souls? Will they go to heaven?

8. Does our modern understanding of behaviour as brain malfunction remove human responsibility for their actions?

To: Further reading

Alan J. Gijsbers MBBS FRACP DTM&H PGDip Epi, is Specialist Physician at Turning Point Drug and Alcohol Centre and at the Department of Drug and Alcohol Studies St Vincent's Hospital. He is a Visiting Physician at the Epworth Hospital, a Senior Lecturer in Clinical Medicine at the Department of Psychological Medicine Monash University and Senior Fellow at St Vincent's Hospital Clinical School, University of Melbourne. He also contributes to a Dual Diagnosis Clinic at the St John of God and St Vincent's Collaborating Centre consulting on people with both Drug and Alcohol and Psychiatric Disorders. He is a fellow ISCAST and editor of their national bulletin. He also somehow manages to be a husband to his wife, Lois, and a father to three children.