Facing off on an issue that both religious and secular philosophers have grappled with throughout history, Prof. Gary Morson and Prof. Michael Bailey debated the existence of the human soul Tuesday night in front of 80 students crowded in the basement of Willard Residential College.
“I cannot prove that 14 little green men on Venus are controlling everything we do, yet I still don’t believe that’s what’s really going on,” Bailey said. He argued that experience does not prove human perception of the world and therefore human ideas about the soul. “Just because I can’t disprove the soul does not mean I believe in it,” he said.
The two professors, both known on campus for original thinking, debated the degree to which determinism affects human experience. Bailey, psychology department chairman, cited scientific findings to support his position that free will does not exist because human choices are constrained by the evolution of genes and by the environments humans experience.
However, Bailey said quantum mechanics could offer the only plausible explanation against his position.
Morson said: “If you allow one exception to determinism, the world by its nature is indeterministic. Period. Any moment can generate any number of outcomes.”
Although both dealt with a concrete definition of the human soul, Morson, a Russian literature lecturer, deduced that the soul is “the non-material part of a person that is left after all other possible explanations are applied,” including experience and genetics.
“Is the soul immortal?” Morson asked. “God, I wish I knew. I promise to send back a message when I find out.”
Morson said human experience is characterized by the expression of free will on a daily basis.
“I cannot disprove free will,” Morson said. “There is no plausible denial of it.”
Both professors relied on specific examples to illustrate their points for audience members.
“I tend to trust experience,” Morson said. “No one has given me proof of why we should be conscious, yet we know we are conscious. I thoroughly believe in consciousness because I’ve experienced it. When everyone experiences something, there is a strong burden of proof on the person trying to prove otherwise.”
Student representatives of the Multicultural Advocacy program asked Bailey and Morson to debate because of their personalities as well as the stances they expressed during classes, said Diana Leonard, event organizer and a Weinberg senior. Multicultural Advocates aim to “fuel and augment discussions” through programming such as this debate, she wrote in an e-mail to The Daily.
“When I took Human Sexuality with Bailey, I was intrigued by the arguments the class presented,” Leonard said. “The idea that our behavior is predominately or entirely mediated by evolutionary factors is both alluring and disturbing.
“As a scholar of Russian literature, Morson is well-versed in the human condition and also seemed quite passionate about the issue of predetermination.”
Students said they did not expect the professors to reach a definitive resolution to the age-old issue, but they said they left with piqued curiosity.
“I came in questioning both sides and left with more questions but with better direction on how to answer them,” said Courtney Spalding-Mayer, a Weinberg freshman. “It was refreshing to hear the issue approached from a scientific perspective rather that appealing to divine powers: They kept religion out of it, which made both positions stronger.”
