The Emergent Threefold Self: a Response to ¡®Are We Ghosts or Machines?¡¯ by Roger Trigg
By Anne L.C. Runehov
Introduction
Are we ghosts or machines? Roger¡¯s title reminds me of my own book in which I asked the question whether religious experiences are Sacred or Neural. The answer was they are both, sacred and neural (Runehov, 2007). Analogically, could the answer to Trigg¡¯s question perhaps be that we are both ghosts and machines? According to Roger Trigg ¡°there are two orders of reality¡±, a physical/material reality, which science can investigate, and a non-physical/non-material reality, which science cannot by itself either study or explain in terms of the physical/material; neither can science simply ignore it. I agree with there being (at least) two orders of reality; however, I disagree with the limits imposed on science. Hence, my response, though in agreement with many ideas put forward by Trigg, will argue for a non-dualistic comprehension of the self and the God-world relationship based on contemporary neuroscientific research on the self, the two orders of reality being taken into account. The suggested model is monistic in nature, i.e. as Trigg argues, there is ¡°only one kind of stuff¡±; however, this stuff will be shown to be threefold. The following explanatory models are suggested (Runehov, 2008):
where ES stands for one Emergent Self comprising a Neural Self (NS), a Subjective Neural Self (SNS) and a Subjective Transcendent Self (STS). There is mutual causation between the neural and subjective selves. Furthermore, the subjective transcendent self is bigger than both the neural and subjective neural self. This ES, theologically, specifically from a Judaeo-Christian perspective, will be understood as the imago Dei:
where EU stands for one Emergent Universe comprising God (G), Natural Reality (NR; world) and all Emergent Selves (ES). There is mutual causation between God and the world, between the world and Emergent Selves (the ES being part of it) and between God and Emergent Selves within the world. Furthermore, the Emergent Selves are bigger than the world and God is bigger than both the world and Emergent Selves.