Physicalism -EM, FP and neuroscience

This set contains material on eliminativism, folk psychology and neuroscience

What does eliminative materialism believe about the mind / mental concepts?

• The way we think and talk about the mind is mistaken

• Resort to abandoning mental concepts and talk about brain processes

What does reductionism believe?

• That there are mental properties, but that these are mental processes

What does eliminativism believe about mental properties?

• That there are no mental properties

Name two criticisms of neuroscience

• Neuroscience doesn’t provide enough for it to explain to us how we act

• Folk psychology cannot be reduced to neuroscience as physical states are never ‘about’ anything

What kinds of theories does eliminativism reject?

Any dualist theory

What kinds of concepts does eliminativism not believe in?

• Happy

• Thought

• Pain

What does eliminativism aim to do with concepts such as pain?

• This theory aims to eliminate them

What does EM argue about folk psychology terms?

• These terms don’t correspond to anything specific and they can’t be reduced to anything

• They say this is the case because these concepts don’t exist

What does EM believe the outcome will be when a proper analysis of mental states is conducted?

• By the end of the analysis, there will be no mental states and no mind

What is folk psychology?

• FP refers to the everyday psychological concepts and explanations of behaviour we use

What comments does Churchland make on FP?

• Folk psychology is something that is assumed

• We should treat it like a scientific theory

What are the three underlying problems of FP?

• Folk psychology’s rules and laws are very loosely defined unlike scientific theories whose laws and rules have structure

• FP cannot explain mental illnesses, sleep or learning

• The intentionality also isn’t clear in FP

What do the churchlands say should be replacing FP?

• Neuroscience

Why do the Churchlands say we should aim to eliminate words like ‘belief’ and ‘pain’ from FP?

• Because FP isn’t technically accurate