Ep. #143 – The Immateriality of the Intellect w/ Tomaszewski (and some Modal Collapse)

by John DeRosa · Published April 12, 2021 · Updated April 8, 2021

Summary

Do human persons survive death? What is a strong argument for the immateriality of the intellect? How does the immateriality of the intellect point to the immortality of the rational soul? How did Ross respond to various objections to his argument? What does Christopher Tomaszewski think about some recent modal collapse objections? We’ll tackle those questions and more in this episode.

Guest Bio

Christopher Tomaszewski is a graduate student working on a Phd in philosophy at Baylor University. He has made presentations at the 2017 Central Division Meeting of the Society of Christian Philosophers and the 2018 Southwest Regional Meeting of the Evangelical Philosophical Society. Also, he has published an article in the journal “Analysis” on the topic of Divine Simplicity and Modal Collapse. He blogs at matterofargument.blogspot.com and has appeared on many podcasts and YouTube channels to discuss a variety of topics in philosophy and religion.

Topics

What have you been working on since the last podcast?
What arguments for the immateriality of the intellect do you defend in your dissertation and how do they fit into the dissertation as a whole?
How should we understand some of the key terms in these discussions?
What is James Ross’s argument for the immateriality of the intellect and how do you defend the premises?
How would you respond to some big objections to the argument?
What are your thoughts on a recent rendition of a modal collapse argument in the Clark T & T colume?
What are your thoughts on Omar Fahkri’s recent paper on modal collapse?
It seems that your way of speaking is different than that of Dr. W. Matthews Grant; are your approaches compatible?