Dualism Mind Body

Metaphysics

Branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality. Try to understand the underlying structure of the world and our place in it.

Metaphysics central questions

What exists? What am I? Are human beings free? What is time? Why do things change?

Ship of Theseus

Replace over time is it the same ship? Metaphysics example.

Metaphysics helps how?

Helps use examine assumptions we often take for granted. It encourages us to think critically about reality, personal identity, freedom, causation, existence. Answers to metaphysical questions influence how we think about science, religion, morality in everyday life.

Tantalus hammer and shadow

Observer only sees shadow and hears sound. Thinks shadow causes the sound. Physiologists see behind screen and discover real hammer and hammer. Similarly, we mistake thoughts, feeling, conscious experience for causes of our actions when it may be brain activity.

Mind Body Propositions

This body is physical, the mind is nonphysical, the mind and body interact causally, nonphysical things cannot causally interact with physical things

Substance Dualism

The mind and body are sperate entities. Mental things can’t be reduced to physical things; they are separate.

Strength: Explains why conscious experience seems different from physical objects, Fits with intuition that we are more than our body.

Problem: If minds are nonphysical and bodies are physical, how can they interact?

Interactionism

Type of dualism. Mind and body causally interact with eachother.

Reductive Physicalism

Everything about human beings can be explained through physical/material components

Identity theory/reductionism

A form of physicalism. There is no separate nonphysical mind. Still makes sense to talk about the mind. Mental states can be translated into brain states.

Mental states are identical to brain states. Just two different ways to describe the same reality.

Strengths: Fits well with modern neuroscience. Avoids the problem of explaining how a nonphysical mind interacts with a physical body.

Problem: People and animals with very different brains can still experience similar mental states. How can one mental state be similar to many physical ones?

Eliminativism

Stronger form of physicalism. No separate nonphysical mind. Eventually eliminate mental vocab and replace it with physiological/brain terminology. Mental concepts don’t refer to genuine things.

Idealism

Almost opposite of physicalism. Reality is fundamentally mental rather than physical. Physical world and body are collections of mental experiences or aspects of a larger mental reality.

Functionalism

Rejects the idea of the mind being a separate substance and that mental events are identical to brain events. The mind is characterized by a pattern of input=processing=output. Compares the brain to computer hardware and the mind to a computer program.

Mental states are defined not by what they are made of, but by what they do. Mental states are functional patterns within a system. May differ between organisms.

Strengths: Explains how different organisms could have similar mental states. Allows for the possibility that computers or AI might possess mental states if they perform the right functions.

Problem: Some argue that functional descriptions leave out the subjective experience of consciousness, sometimes called “what it feels like” to have an experience.

Qualia

Substances of subjective, first-person experience

Epiphenomenalism

Physical states can give rise to mental states, but not vice versa.

Mysterianism

The question of consciousness is unsolvable by human minds. Brain compartmentalized, but no compartment to compare subjective with objective.

Descartes Mind Body

Most famous defender of dualism.

Principle of Nonidentity of Discernibles: If two things have different properties, they cannot be the exact same thing. The mind has different properties from the body, so they must be different.

Argument from Doubt: Can doubt the body exists but not the mind. Mind and body are distinguishable.

Argument from Divisibility: The body is divisible, and the mind isn’t, so they must be different.

Argument from Consciousness: Mind is conscious while the body isn’t so they must be differrent.

Cartesian Compromise

Descartes wanted both science and religion to make sense. He said they come from different realms, so they don’t have to compete. Proposed pineal gland was where mind and body interacted, but gland is physical itself.

Metaphysical monism

Position that there is only 1 kind of reality. Materialism vs Idealism or physical vs mental

Metaphysical dualism

position that there are two types of reality.

Lincoln Argument

Don’t know if 16th president has beard, but knows Lincoln has a beard. Therefore, they are not the same person. Disproves the Principle of Nonidentity of Discernibles

David Chaluer’s Dualism

Also called property dualism, double-aspect theory, naturalistic dualism

Science can provide answers to the easy problems but not the hard ones. Believes there is only body, but it has both mental and physical properties. Kind of dualist.

Chaluer’s argument against physicalism

Consciousness/subjective experience exist, impossible to reduce consciousness to physical processes, Consciousness is a fundamental feature of reality which is irreducible to physical processes,Hhowever physicalism claims scientist can or will be able to reduce consciousness down to physical process.