I’m doing my best here to approach what “a tiny piece of your soul” might mean. But no matter; perhaps you have a better idea of what that is. In any case, suppose you somehow isolated this tiny fraction of mind or spirit, and took it out of the context of all the countless other details we didn’t look at. Now it’s disconnected from all that other stuff: vision, balance, nachos, nuances of empathy…Given modern science, there is something more you can say about a particle besides the geometry and equations that describe it, something which connects it to the direct, cogito-ergo-sum style knowledge we all enjoy: whatever it is, a particle is a one thousand-trillion-trillionth of a you. Yes, you, your essence. Yes, science can now describe, in more or less complete detail, a one thousand-trillion-trillionth of a “soul”.
Um...originally I thought this argument was skipping over the whole “how do particles lead to conscious experience” issue, but looking over it again I think I detect a hint of panpsychism—that all particles are conscious and the fact that you’re conscious is an effect of the particles that make you up. If that was your intent, it definitely deserves a more complete treatment than a few sentences buried in an article about convincing nonmaterialists. If that wasn’t your intent, how does this explain the apparent gap between physical matter and conscious experience at all?
Um...originally I thought this argument was skipping over the whole “how do particles lead to conscious experience” issue, but looking over it again I think I detect a hint of panpsychism—that all particles are conscious and the fact that you’re conscious is an effect of the particles that make you up. If that was your intent, it definitely deserves a more complete treatment than a few sentences buried in an article about convincing nonmaterialists. If that wasn’t your intent, how does this explain the apparent gap between physical matter and conscious experience at all?
Yes, it would be nice if you could clear up that whole “what is consciousness” thing for us.
I do think the use of words like “soul” and “essence” can create too much ambiguity about what’s being described, considering their loaded history.
I also like bogdanb’s correction on the topic.