The Substance of Consciousness

Acknowledgments

Dedication

Extended Table of Contents

List of Figures

Part I: Ontologically Serious Philosophy of Mind: Contemporary and Tenacious Insights

Substance Dualism in the 21st Century

How Staunch Naturalism Shapes the Dialectic in Philosophy of Mind

A Brief Ontological Detour: Subjects, Parts, Wholes, and Unity

Part II: Arguments from Introspection, Self-Awareness, and Intentionality

The Nature of Introspection and Arguments for Substance Dualism

From Self-Awareness and Intentionality to the Immaterial Self

Part III: On the Fundamental Unity of Conscious Beings

From Phenomenal Unity to the Synchronic Unity of the Immaterial Self

Mereological Essentialism and the Diachronic Endurance of the Soul

Part IV: Updated and Novel Arguments from Modality and Libertarian Freedom

Updating Modal Arguments for Substance Dualism

Staunch Libertarian Agency and a Simple, Enduring Soul

Part V: New and Neglected Responses to Common Defeaters Against Substance Dualism

Important and Recited Defeaters Against Substance Dualism

Part V: Charting a Future for Substance Dualism

New Research Programs for 21st Century Substance Dualism

APPENDIX: Neuroscience, Mental Action, and the Conservation Laws, by Mihretu P. Guta

Bibliography

"Though most materialists don't know it, we're in the midst of a renaissance of intellectually serious substance dualism thirty years in the making. The Substance of Consciousness will push the crest of that dualist wave even higher. Materialists who hope to resist have our work cut out for us."
--Andrew M. Bailey, Yale-NUS College

"Rickabaugh and Moreland have produced a tour de force in this brilliant, systematic case for contemporary forms of substance dualism. It is a treasure trove of arguments, objections, and replies that should be required reading in philosophy of mind today, challenging the current, ingrained prejudice against dualism."
--Charles Taliaferro, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, St. Olaf College

"Moreland and Rickabaugh have written the most comprehensive, up-to-date, and sophisticated defense of substance dualism available. They successfully tackle every anti-dualist argument in the literature, demonstrating both the variety of options available to dualists and the fruitfulness of the dualist framework for future scientific and philosophical research. Especially impressive is their e creative use of neo-Aristotelian, scholastic, and 19th-century sources (Brentano, Husserl) to develop an attractive synthesis of dualism with hylomorphism. They bring to philosophy of mind theoretical resources, including the metaphysics of mereology, that is tragically absent in today's debates."
--Robert C. Koons, University of Texas at Austin

"This is a stunning book. Rickabaugh and Moreland marshal a formidable phalanx of arguments for substance dualism as an account of consciousness and various aspects of the soul/mind and body relation. They provide persuasive answers to every common objection showing that contemporary Substance Dualism is philosophically superior and consistent with the latest cognitive science. No reasonable physicalists can ignore this book."
--C. Stephen Evans, Emeritus University Professor, Baylor University and Professorial Research Fellow, University of Notre Dame Australia

"Moreland and Rickabaugh's monograph is a first-rate treatment of the most important issues concerning the existence and nature of consciousness and the soul. I highly recommend it!"
--Stewart Goetz, Ross Frederick Wicks Distinguished Professor in Philosophy and Religion, Ursinus College

"This book is a tour de force on the topic of consciousness. Rickabaugh and Moreland offer a depth of analysis that interacts with the latest and best work on this topic in recent years."
--Joshua Rasmussen, Azusa Pacific University

"Can we explain the unity of consciousness, or our continuity over time, without the postulation of a simple, immaterial entity as the seat of human consciousness? Materialists and panpsychists hope we can, but The Substance of Consciousness raises powerful challenges to all of these attempts to explain the human mind 'on the cheap.' Anyone working on the philosophy of consciousness needs to confront these arguments and work out how to respond. It's not easy!"
--Philip Goff, Durham University

BRANDON RICKABAUGH is Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Research Scholar of Philosophy of Technology and Culture at Palm Beach Atlantic University. His work has won multiple awards and published in academic journals and books with presses such as Wiley Blackwell and Oxford University Press. He is a fellow of the Cultura Initiative at The Martin Institute in Santa Barbara, California. For more, visit www.brandonrickabaugh.com.

J.P. MORELAND is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University. He has authored or contributed to 95 books, including Does God Exist?, Universals, Consciousness and the Existence of God, and The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology. He has also published around one hundred articles in a range of philosophy and religious studies journals, and in 2016 and 2022, Moreland was selected by The Best Schools as one of the 50 most influential living philosophers in the world.

B. Rickabaugh, Palm Beach Atlantic University; J. P. Moreland, Biola University