Lois’s answer to “Ms. Bujold! I'm so glad you answer questions! My question is about the Chalion series. I rea…” > Likes and Comments
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Goodreads tries to prevent its authors from having to read novel-length questions! I was trying to get my question small enough to fit, while still being sensible. I have read and enjoyed C.S. Lewis and St. Augustine. But I am looking forward to finding out more about Loyola. Thanks for the tip!
Ooh. Can we talk more about dualism? I am rereading the Curse of the Chalion right now and I was just thinking "aha, matter and spirit! Non-Overlapping Magisteria! Dualism!" But maybe I'm wrong about what Dualism is?
@ Daniel
In the world of Chalion, I conceive of matter and spirit not as dualistic, but as spirit being an emergent property of matter, and hence unitarian. In one of Plato's dialogues (one of the very few I've read), he has Socrates pooh-pooh a young man who tries to visualize mind to matter as music to a lyre, dynamic, instead picturing a separate permanent static existence for ideas or the ideal, but as nearly as modern science has been able to work it out so far, his young man had the right of it.
(Good grief, this tiny box is terrible for typing complex replies.)
So at death, the gods, themselves supported by the world, "take over" the maintenance of human minds when the body stops doing so, but only if the individual elects to join up. Otherwise, the unsupported personality dissipates, as we see the ghosts doing.
(It is a fantasy novel, keep in mind.)
Ta, L.
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Beth
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Jan 05, 2015 02:59PM
Goodreads tries to prevent its authors from having to read novel-length questions! I was trying to get my question small enough to fit, while still being sensible. I have read and enjoyed C.S. Lewis and St. Augustine. But I am looking forward to finding out more about Loyola. Thanks for the tip!
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Ooh. Can we talk more about dualism? I am rereading the Curse of the Chalion right now and I was just thinking "aha, matter and spirit! Non-Overlapping Magisteria! Dualism!" But maybe I'm wrong about what Dualism is?
@ DanielIn the world of Chalion, I conceive of matter and spirit not as dualistic, but as spirit being an emergent property of matter, and hence unitarian. In one of Plato's dialogues (one of the very few I've read), he has Socrates pooh-pooh a young man who tries to visualize mind to matter as music to a lyre, dynamic, instead picturing a separate permanent static existence for ideas or the ideal, but as nearly as modern science has been able to work it out so far, his young man had the right of it.
(Good grief, this tiny box is terrible for typing complex replies.)
So at death, the gods, themselves supported by the world, "take over" the maintenance of human minds when the body stops doing so, but only if the individual elects to join up. Otherwise, the unsupported personality dissipates, as we see the ghosts doing.
(It is a fantasy novel, keep in mind.)
Ta, L.
