substance dualism - Responses

This covers the generic responses to substance dualism

What is Mill’s argument from analogy talking about?

• With this analogy, Mill aims to prove that there are other minds that exist

What’s the critique that counters Mill’s claim in his argument from analogy?

• Its a dubious inference to go from one instance of a relationship to the claim that this relationship is the same for all instances

Why is it argued that ‘other minds’ is the best explanation?

• Because of its predictive power its the best explanation

• This response explains why people behave in the way they do- using the mind as a reason

Why is causal interaction a problem for substance dualism?

• Its a problem because there is proof that mental things can causally interact with physical things when they are supposed to be two separate entities

What is the conceptual interaction problem? Who was it raised by?

• This problem highlights the difficulty of seeing how a non-physical substance would interact with a physical substance

• This problem was raised by the Princess of Bohemia

In the conceptual interaction problem, what is the issue with the 3rd premise?

• Because the 4th premise was incorrect, we can see from the 3rd one that it follows that the mind is in fact physical, even though substance dualism denies it and argues otherwise