Compare And Contrast Materialism And Dualism

Throughout history there have been many attempts to explain how the world we live in works. When understanding how humans work, the prevailing theories are Materialism and Dualism. I will explain what Materialism and Dualism is. Then I will argue that zombies do not exist. Dualism is the idea that everything exist either physically or non-physically. This means that humans are composed of two parts, a body that you can use to interact with other physical objects and a mind that is able to produce thoughts and experiences. For instance, when we perform actions such as looking at the stars, we use our eyes to view the stars while our brain creates thoughts about the stars, such as how far away they are from us and how big the stars are. If curiosity is a physical thing, then it must be measurable. Since curiosity cannot be physically measured then it is a non-physical thing. Therefore, there must be some things in our universe that are non-physical. Although this logic seems credible, Dualism fails to explain how the mind and body communicatie (Blackmore 20). This is the reason why other believe …show more content…
Unlike Dualism, Materialism only sees the world as matter (Blackmore 20). This means that concepts such as consciousness are a direct result of physical interactions that occur within our brain. Materialism focuses on what can be seen and measured. For instance, the state of being happy is caused by a hormone, dopamine, and that the feeling of happiness is nothing more than reactions between proteins. Materialism appeals to many, including scientist, because physical concepts , such as chemistry, are able to explain the cause of an event. But one disadvantage of this is that it fails to prove consciousness and experiences through physical means. This leads us to questions what consciousness is and how it