David Armstrong Nature Of Mind Analysis

Nature of Mind Summary
David Armstrong wholeheartedly believes in “Scientism” and agrees strongly with Materialist views. He starts off by making the point that he absolutely believes that humans have minds. Some people believe that the mind is the physical brain while others have spiritual beliefs about the mind. There are other views and theories out there, but those are the most popular, controversial ones. Although there’s many theories, most people can come to an agreement that all humans have certain functions that clearly link up to the mind/brain. That is how we perceive, sense, feel emotions, have our own individual thoughts and beliefs, etc. Armstrong then goes on to explain why he trusts science, “why this Scientism?” He points out that without science, we wouldn’t know everything that we know today. “It is only as a result of scientific investigation that we ever seem to reach an intellectual consensus about controversial matters.” Now we get to the Behaviorists. Behaviorists believe that our minds are linked up to our behaviors. Armstrong mentions two types of Behaviorism, but I’ll bring that up later. Behaviorists have come up with many counter arguments to …show more content…
“I turn back to my subject: the attempt to work out an account of mind within the framework of the physico-chemical view of man.” So now, back to those two types of Behaviorism. There is Crude behaviorism and Rylean behaviorism. Crude being that the mind is simply an outward act. Instead of the mind being behind the behavior, it is a part of the physical behavior. Armstrong’s counter argument was that “there can be mental processes going on although there is no behavior occurring that could possible be treated as expressions of these processes.” In other words, a girl can be sad and still have a smile on her face or a man can be angry, but can seem entirely calm and happy. Therefore, your mind can’t just be your