Fwd: Fw: Question for Clergy

Some responses from Kevin Corcoran, and a preview (sort
of) of his forth coming book.

   --- the forwarded message follows ---

attached mail follows:

Jack,

I take on John Cooper in my book. I think he makes a logical mistake in his
reasoning. I think Cooper reasons something like this:

if there is an intermediate state of conscious existence between death and the
general resurrection, then human persons must be dualistic in the sense of
having an immaterial soul.

But we must be careful not to confuse the true claim that

         if human persons enjoy an intermediate state of conscious
         existence, then human persons are not identical with what gets
         buried in the earth,

with what I take to be the false claim that

        if human persons enjoy an intermediate state of conscious
        existence, then human persons are immaterial souls.

As you know, in the book I argue that human persons can be essentially
constituted by their bodies without being identical with them. Likewise, it is
possible for there to be an intermediate state of conscious existence without a
dualist anthropology. To put it sharply, human persons are not identical with
their bodies but are nevertheless wholly material beings. My reasons for
believing this puzzling claim are given in chapter three of the book. The
important point here is simply to see that it is a mistake to move from what
seems to me to be the true claim that the Old Testament teaches an intermediate
state of conscious existence to the claim that we are therefore immaterial
souls.

Okay, so that's that! Let me open up you other message and respond to it!

Kevin

Kevin J. Corcoran, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Philosophy
Calvin College
Grand Rapids, MI 49546
Office: (616) 526-6636
http://www.calvin.edu/academic/philosophy/corcoran/index.htm
                            
Received on Mon Apr 24 09:14:48 2006