Philosophy November Mock Substance Dualism & Property Dualism Flashcards

What is Materialism?

The view that everything is made of physical matter.

What is Physicalism?

The view that everything is physical, depends on something physical, or is subject to the laws of physics.

What is Dualism?

The theory that mind and body are radically different kinds of substance.

What is Monism?

The theory that there is only one fundamental kind of substance, category of thing or principle.

How does Materialism explain the mind and consciousness?

The mind and consciousness are made of the same physical matter as everything else. Thought is the mode of existence of the brain, which is matter organised in a particular way.

What does 'mind' refer to in Materialism?

The sum of the activity of the brain and nervous system.

What is a causal link?

A necessary or functional relationship between a cause and its effect.

What is subjectivity?

Having a point of view or perspective on the world; there is something it is like to be that subject.

What is the difference between a subject and an object?

A subject has subjective experience; an object, such as a bowl of soup, does not have a point of view.

What are the two most important features of the mind?

Thought and consciousness.

What are mental states and mental events?

Mental states are conditions of the mind, such as beliefs and desires. Mental events are occurrences such as having a thought or feeling pain.

What abilities distinguish things with minds?

They experience the world, have beliefs and desires, are conscious and can think about things.

What is Substance Dualism?

The view that there are two kinds of substance in the universe: mental substance and physical substance.

What is Property Dualism?

The view that there is one substance, which is physical, but it has both physical and non-physical properties.

What is Cartesian Substance Dualism?

Descartes' view that the mind is a non-physical substance distinct from the physical body and can exist independently of it.

What is the essence of the mind according to Descartes?

Thinking or consciousness.

What is the essence of the body according to Descartes?

Extension: having spatial dimensions.

What properties does Descartes attribute to the mind and body?

Mind: known directly, free, indivisible and indestructible. Body: known indirectly, determined, infinitely divisible and destructible.

What is Mind-Brain Type Identity Theory?

The theory that mental states, such as pain or thoughts, are identical to brain states.

What is Eliminative Materialism?

The materialist view that folk psychology is fundamentally flawed and that some supposed mental states, such as beliefs and desires, do not actually exist.

What does Eliminative Materialism predict about folk psychology?

It will eventually be replaced by a more accurate explanation of the mind based on neuroscience.

What is Philosophical Behaviourism?

The theory that mental concepts can be analysed in terms of behavioural dispositions; the mind is what the body does.

What is Functionalism?

The theory that mental states are defined by their function or role within a system, rather than by their physical properties or constitution.

What is Leibniz's Law?

The Indiscernibility of Identicals: if X = Y, then X and Y have all the same properties.

What is the converse of Leibniz's Law?

If X and Y do not have all the same properties, then X and Y are not identical.

Explain Descartes' Indivisibility Argument for Substance Dualism.

P1: The body is divisible. P2: The mind is indivisible. C: Therefore, the mind is not the body; mind and body are distinct.

How does Descartes use Leibniz's Law in the Indivisibility Argument?

The body is extended in space and has literal parts, whereas the mind is not extended and has no literal parts. Since they have different properties, they cannot be identical.

What is the first objection to Descartes' Indivisibility Argument?

The mental may be divisible.

How do Freudian theories challenge the claim that the mind is indivisible?

Freud's id, ego and superego, and distinctions between conscious and subconscious processes, suggest that the mind has different parts.

How might mental illness be used to challenge the mind's indivisibility?

Some accounts of mental illness describe fragmentation or division of identity and mental processes, challenging the idea that the mind is indivisible.

How does split-brain research challenge Descartes' Indivisibility Argument?

When the connection between the brain's hemispheres is severed, research suggests that separate centres of consciousness can emerge, challenging the claim that the mind is indivisible.

What is the corpus callosum?

The bundle of nerve fibres connecting the brain's two hemispheres.

What is split-brain syndrome?

A condition arising when the corpus callosum is severed, which prevents normal communication between the brain's hemispheres.

What is callosal disconnection syndrome?

A condition caused by damage to fibres connecting the brain's hemispheres, for example through stroke, tumours or multiple sclerosis.

What is the second objection to Descartes' Indivisibility Argument?

Not everything physical is divisible.

How do subatomic particles challenge Descartes' Indivisibility Argument?

Fundamental particles such as electrons and quarks cannot be split into literal pieces in the same way as ordinary objects. Therefore, indivisibility does not prove that something is non-physical.

What assumption does Descartes make about the mind in the Indivisibility Argument?

He assumes that the mind is a substance, so that it can meaningfully be described as divisible or indivisible. If minds are only properties of the brain, they may be neither divisible nor indivisible.

What is Descartes' Conceivability Argument intended to establish?

That the mind and body are really distinct and can exist independently of one another.

What is a clear and distinct idea?

An idea understood clearly and precisely, without confusion with other ideas.

How does Descartes clearly and distinctly conceive of the mind and body?

He conceives of himself as a thinking thing that is not extended, and of the body as an extended thing that does not think.

Explain Descartes' Conceivability Argument.

P1: I can clearly and distinctly understand myself as a thinking thing without a body. P2: If I can clearly and distinctly understand X as F, God can make X be F. P3: God exists. C1: God can make me, as a thinking thing, exist apart from my body. P4: If X can exist without Y, X and Y are different things. C2: My mind and body are really distinct.

Why does Descartes rely on God in the Conceivability Argument?

If God exists and is omnipotent, God can create anything that is not self-contradictory. Since mind and body are not self-contradictory when conceived separately, God can create them independently.

What does omnipotence mean?

Being all-powerful.

Why must Descartes' ideas of mind and body be clear and distinct?

They must be complete and exclusive concepts, so that conceiving them separately genuinely shows that they can exist separately.

What is a substance?

Something that can exist independently.

What is the concern about conceiving of a mind without a body?

It may be unclear how a mind could exist or exhibit behaviour without a body. Behaviourism suggests mental states are expressed through bodily behaviour.

What is a possible world?

A way the universe might have been.

What is the actual world?

The way the universe actually is.

What are possible worlds used for in philosophy?

They help philosophers consider different ways the universe could have been and assess what is possible.

What is an analytic truth?

A truth that is true in virtue of the meaning of the words.

Give an example of an analytic truth.

All bachelors are unmarried; squares have four equal sides.

What is a necessary truth?

A truth that cannot be false and is true in all possible worlds.

Give an example of a necessary truth from the notes.

17 is prime.

What is logical possibility?

What is not self-contradictory and is allowed by our concepts.

What is physical possibility?

What is possible given the laws of nature as they are in the actual world.

What is the relationship between logical and physical possibility?

What is physically possible must also be logically possible, but what is logically possible is not necessarily physically possible.

Why is flying to school logically possible but physically impossible?

It is not self-contradictory, but it is not possible under the actual laws of nature.

What is metaphysical possibility?

All the ways the universe might have been; the realm of what is metaphysically possible.

What was the traditional view about logical and metaphysical possibility?

Traditionally, philosophers argued that everything logically possible is metaphysically possible.

How does Hilary Putnam challenge the traditional link between logical and metaphysical possibility?

He argues that some statements are logically possible but not metaphysically possible, such as 'Water is not H2O'.

Why is 'Water is not H2O' logically possible?

The statement is not self-contradictory, so it can be conceived, even though it is false of water as we know it.

Why is 'Water is not H2O' metaphysically impossible according to Putnam?

If water is H2O, its molecular composition is essential to what water is; water could not be a different substance and still be water.

What is a fallacy?

An error in reasoning that undermines the logic or strength of an argument.

What is the Masked Man Fallacy?

The mistake of assuming that because someone can conceive of X and Y as different, X and Y must really be different.

Explain the Masked Man example.

P1: The masked man robbed the bank. P2: My father is not the masked man. C: Therefore, my father did not rob the bank. This is fallacious because the speaker may not know that their father is the masked man.

How does the Masked Man Fallacy challenge Descartes' Conceivability Argument?

From conceiving of the mind and body as distinct, we cannot automatically infer that they really are distinct. Descartes may be unaware of the body's role in conscious experience.

What is Descartes' reply to the Masked Man objection?

He argues that the Masked Man example is not a clear and distinct conception, whereas the mind and body are clearly and distinctly conceived as different.

What is mental causation?

The idea that thoughts, desires and other psychological states cause other mental states and changes in the body, such as movement.

What is the problem of mental causation for Substance Dualism?

If the mind is non-physical and not in space, it is difficult to explain how it can causally affect the physical body.

Explain Princess Elisabeth's objection to mind-body interaction.

Physical things move when pushed or when a force is exerted through contact. The mind is not extended and cannot touch the body. Therefore, the mind cannot move the body.

Explain the basic argument against the mind causing bodily movement.

P1: If X directly causes body Y to move, X must be extended or make contact with Y. P2: An immaterial substance cannot make contact with a body. P3: An immaterial substance is not extended. C: Therefore, a thinking substance cannot directly cause a body to move.

What is one reply to Princess Elisabeth's contact objection?

Gravity can affect objects without direct physical contact, suggesting that contact may not be necessary for causation.

What is the physical force objection to Dualism?

Physical movement is initiated by a physical force exerted at some point in space. If the mind is non-physical and not in space, it cannot exert such a force; therefore, it cannot move the body.

What is Interactionist Dualism?

The view that the mind can cause physical events and other mental events.

What is the empirical interaction problem?

Whether the claim that the mind causes physical changes is compatible with what we know empirically about the physical world.

What is the Law of Conservation of Energy?

In any closed system, the total amount of energy remains unchanged.

Explain the Conservation of Energy objection to Interactionist Dualism.

If a non-physical mind moves the body, it appears to add energy to the physical universe. This would challenge the Law of Conservation of Energy, which states that energy in a closed system remains unchanged.

How does neuroscience challenge Substance Dualism?

Neuroscience links bodily movements and mental states to physical events and activity in the brain, while providing no clear evidence that a non-physical mind changes brain activity.

What is the dualist reply to the neuroscience objection?

There is no evidence that the mind does not change what happens in the brain. If Dualism is true, some brain events may have a non-physical cause.

What is Epiphenomenalism?

The view that physical brain activity causes subjective mental states, but mental states cannot cause physical actions or effects.

What does Epiphenomenalist Dualism claim about the mind's causal powers?

The mind has no causal powers; consciousness exists but does not cause behaviour or physical events.

What analogy is used to explain Epiphenomenalism?

Consciousness is like froth on a wave or steam from a boiling kettle: it is present but does not cause the physical process.

What is the first objection to Epiphenomenalism?

It is counter-intuitive because it conflicts with our experience that decisions and intentions cause our actions, such as deciding to raise an arm and then raising it.

What is the second objection to Epiphenomenalism?

It struggles to explain self-knowledge: if pain causes nothing, it is unclear how our belief that we are in pain is reliably caused by the pain itself.

How does Epiphenomenalism challenge knowledge of pain?

If pain has no causal powers, the belief that we are in pain could be caused by brain activity even when we are not in pain. The belief would therefore be unreliable.

What is the Problem of Other Minds?

The problem of explaining how we can know that other people have minds when we experience our own minds directly but only observe other people's behaviour.

Why is the Problem of Other Minds a challenge for Substance Dualism?

If minds are logically independent of bodies, bodily behaviour cannot prove that another person's body has a mind attached to it.

Explain the Problem of Other Minds Argument against Substance Dualism.

P1: If Substance Dualism is correct, human bodies could lack minds yet behave exactly as they do. P2: If this is possible, we have no evidence of other minds. P3: We do not have evidence of other minds. C: Therefore, Substance Dualism is not correct.

What is an analogy?

A relationship or comparison between entities that are similar in one or more respects.

What is an inference?

Drawing a conclusion based on evidence.

What is the Argument from Analogy as a response to the Problem of Other Minds?

We infer that other people have minds because they behave similarly to us, and we know from our own case that mental states cause our behaviour.

Explain the advanced Argument from Analogy.

P1: I have a mind. P2: I know from experience that my mental states cause my behaviour. P3: Other people have bodies like mine and behave similarly in similar situations. C1: By analogy, their behaviour has the same type of cause as mine: mental states. C2: Therefore, other people have minds.

What is the main objection to the first Argument from Analogy?

You cannot make a reliable induction from only one case; one example is not enough to establish a general conclusion.

How does the second Argument from Analogy respond to the one-case objection?

It uses many examples of behaviour known to have mental causes, rather than relying on only one example.

Explain the second Argument from Analogy.

P1: This behaviour has a mental cause. P2: That behaviour has a mental cause, and so on for many examples. C1: Many behaviours have mental causes. P3: Other people exhibit the same types of behaviour. C2: Therefore, those behaviours in other people also have mental causes, so other people have minds.

What is the objection to the second Argument from Analogy?

Not all behaviour has a mental cause, or we may not know that it does. Similar behaviour in other people could have a non-mental cause.

What is the Best Hypothesis response to the Problem of Other Minds?

The best explanation of other people's behaviour is that they have inner mental states which respond to the environment and cause behaviour.

How does Descartes approach the Problem of Other Minds in Meditation II?

He describes seeing hats and coats crossing a square and judging that they are men, rather than merely seeing physical objects.

Why does Anita Avramides argue that Descartes is not using the Argument from Analogy?

The Argument from Analogy uses two separate judgements: others behave as I do, and I have a mind. Descartes simply describes judging that the people he sees are men; he does not make this comparison.

How does Descartes distinguish humans from machines?

Humans use language meaningfully and display highly adaptable behaviour, whereas machines cannot respond meaningfully to questions or adapt in the same way.