Dualism, materialism, and awaretheory

Dualism in philosophy is a theory or system of thought that regards a domain of reality in terms of two independent principles, esp. mind and matter.
Materialism in philosophy is a theory or system of thought that nothing exists except matter and its movements and modifications; the doctrine that consciousness and will are wholly due to material agency.

Awaretheory is a materialistic theory that has a dualistic aspect to it. There are different kinds of existence. Thus there are different kinds of "Dualism" and "Materialism". It often seems that Dualism and Materialism are argued for reasons other than for their own philosophical existence. It is sometimes believed that Dualism is necessary for life after death and immortality, and if Materialism is true then life after death and immortality are impossible. In reality the opposite is more close to the truth. It is easier to understand and control matter than it is to understand and control consciousness alone. People have tried to control their consciousness directly by their consciousness in many different ways down through history. There has been some success in some small ways. These successes translate into changes in the structure and functioning of the brain. If the mind is in some way separate from the structure and functioning of the body or specifically the brain, and then the mind somehow effects the structure and functioning of the brain then there will not be a direct one to one mapping from brain structure and functioning to consciousness and ixperiencitness. This greatly increases the complexity and predictability of the consciousness producing systems. If we can not understand the mind based on the structure and functioning of matter then it seems that we can not understand the mind and thus understand and control consciousness and ixperiencitness.

One problem with the concept of the mind is in thinking of it as some kind of object like the brain.

There can be many different ways to construe dualism one such way is by controllability. How is consciousness and ixperiencitness controlled? Can they be controlled by matter or by some other means such as by way of a mind substance? Substance dualism predicts a mind substance that exists independently of matter. Property dualism predicts that there are mental properties that are independent of matter. If the functioning of matter produces consciousness and ixperiencitness then consciousness and ixperiencitness is controllable by modifying how matter is structured and then how it functions. This bring us to a second question --- Is consciousness and ixperiencitness predictably controllable or not? If consciousness and ixperiencitness is predictable and controllable through the structure and functioning of matter then consciousness and ixperiencitness can be viewed as organizing and simplifying concepts for dealing with the complex structure and functioning of matter. A single consciousness is not complex enough to understand all of the aspects of its material production. Not only is there one very complex physapath that will produce a consciousness or awarepath but there are many different physapaths that will produce the same awarepath and there are many different awarepaths that will produce one ixperiencitness.

Materialism does not allow free will in the sense that given the exact same conditions physical conditions the same behavior will be produced. Dualism is argued for giving a basis for free will. If there is a mind separate from the body it can influence the behavior of the body changing how the body will behavior giving it in the end free will from materialistic determinism.