Monism And Dualism In Ariel's Little Mermaid

One can view the mind-body problem to differentiate his or her mental and physical perspective. An individual can address his or her perspective as a monist, dualist or functionalist. Monism is a philosophical approach of the universe being ultimately one thing or substance. (26) For instance, a monist would be a belief that there is only one God.
Furthermore, dualists hold the belief that the mind and body have two opposite principles. (28) An example of dualism would be evil vs. good. In Little Mermaid, Ariel was the good because overall she wanted to be a human and be able to walk; whereas Ursela was the bad because she made an awful deal with Ariel that she will get feet but will lose her voice forever. On the other hand, functionalism is the dominant philosophical approach of the mind. (32) Functionalism is identified in two different approaches, physical kinds and functional kinds. Physical kinds are two opposite pairs which consist of divergent substances. (33) The components used to build a laptop are different from the materials used to make a chair. Despite the physical kinds, functional kinds are defined as a movement revolving around how one may conduct in their daily lives. (33). A teacher may have different strategies in order to teach a class than other teachers but different teaching techniques can help students …show more content…
There are many different ways of perceiving the world, hence; I consider myself a dualist. In particular, I truly regard myself falling best under the category of substance dualism. Substance dualism is identified by Rene Descartes assertion on the mental and physical state being constituted of separate substances. (29) In addition, substance dualism is described as the mind which helps to articulates thoughts which then lead into actions. In spite of that, a physical object does not have the brainpower to produce thoughts as the mind does.