Useless thoughts projected on the interstices

Is there really any sense in trying to settle issues in the metaphysics of mind by appealing to counterfactuality? Just by thinking about what could have been but isn't it seems we can get a grip on the debated mind-body problem. I am having in mind Kripke's dualist argument. At this moment I doubt we can say something serious on this difficult problem with the use of such tools, but it remains as a homework for me to stir through my memories and notes and to take a look at the literature to see whether my bias is justified or not. The presentation I gave today at SéPhLa was disappointing for me once again, since I could not express everything in French. I am feeling impoverished, because in the heat of the battle you have to be tough and I lack the infrastructure conferred by the language. It remains to confirm I am willing to solve this. I lack motivation to get deeper into these problems because of their apparent futility for me. I mean, la douleur=la stimulation des fibres-C, ..., et voilà, le dualisme. I need to come back on these, though, to fully understand the points behind. All in all, the circularity in Kripke's thought still seems a plausible explanation for me. Analytic abilities come to the fullest when some underlying points are extremely well-established. But that ontology may be extremely impoverished and often the case is so, which allows the impressive deployment of the analytical abilities.