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Dean Zimmerman
Professor of Philosopy
Dean W. Zimmerman is an American professor of philosophy at Rutgers University. He specializes in metaphysics and the philosophy of religion.
Key Takeaways
Core Claim
Nonphysical minds naturally arise from certain complex physical systems, like brains, via unknown meta-psychophysical laws.
How It Works
Physical complexity triggers the emergence of a new, tethered, nonphysical substance that becomes the conscious subject.
Distinguishing Idea
Souls are generated by the physical world itself, reducing the classic mind-body “pairing problem.”
Possible Independence
Once formed, a soul might persist beyond the brain, supporting interpretations of near-death and out-of-body experiences.
Broader Scope
Such laws could, in principle, generate consciousness in non-biological systems, including advanced AI.
Emergent Dualism
Emergent dualism is the idea that while mind or consciousness is not fundamental in reality, it comes into existence “naturally” when a certain kind of complex arrangement of physical atoms comes together, say, in biological neurons. The resultant new substance that emerges would be nonphysical, generated by some meta-psychophysical processes or laws, and it would become the first-person subject of the mind or consciousness. This freshly emergent nonphysical substance, to take the extremes, could be either entirely dependent on the brain for continued existence or take on independent ontological existence in some strong sense (though the latter, to me, would seem a rather odd way for reality to be).
Consciousness Emerging from Complexity
For some philosophers, emergent dualism is a softer-sell “dualism-light,” because souls would then be a normal part of the physical world, however extended, where these as-yet-unknown “natural” meta-psychophysical laws would determine their automatic manifestation from complex structures, especially from brains (perhaps only from brains). Dualism's “pairing problem”—how can nonphysical substances (“souls”) have causal relations with physical substances (brains) with zero tolerance for failure?—would be reduced under emergent dualisms because (i) souls would seem in a way tethered in space (Zimmerman, 2005), and (ii) souls would have been generated by physical substances (brains) in the first place.
Implications for Souls, Survival, and AI
As a theist, Richard Swinburne holds the creationist position that God creates anew each new soul. But, if he came to believe that this position was mistaken, then, as a theist, he would hold the view that God had already built into atoms their propensity to produce souls (Swinburne, 2016).
Out-of-body and near-death experiences (OBEs and NDEs) are said to support emergent dualism, in that if one starts by assuming OBEs and NDEs to be actual disembodied conscious experiences (17.12), then emergent dualism is said to be a candidate to explain them. And once this nonphysical substance (soul) comes into existence, it is then logically possible for this “soul” to become independent of its progenerating physical substance (brain) and to maintain its existence beyond the dissolution of the physical (Kopel, 2023).
Finally, there would be no necessity that the kind of meta-psychophysical laws that generate emergent dualism should be restricted to complex arrangements of atoms in biological entities or contexts. Thus, under emergent dualism, AI consciousness would not be impossible, as it would be under traditional forms of dualism (AI Consciousness, 24).
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