Anne Conway first argues that spirit and body do not differ in essence but rather only differ in degree. She argues that they differ in degree “based on the intimate union or bond that exists between spirits and bodies, by means of which spirits control the bodies they are united with, moving them around and using them as instruments in their various operations.” She furthers her argument by pushing against Descartes theory of a “vital fit” she suggests rather that this would not require a spirit to have such an organized body. She argues that if it were true that the spirit and the body differed entirely then when the spirit moved it would leave the body behind because they differ so much.…
He yearns to reduce this entire thing in materialistic terms, yet still preserving the humanistic qualities. He does this by stating mental states are identical with physical states. Although they have this relationship mental states are identical inner states and behavior is an outer state. Thus, this means that if one targets the correct area of the brain he can eliminate these mental states leaving being an animal of stimuli. All of these perspectives shed an illuminating light on the issues of physicalism and dualism which is to be debated for years to come.…
America is browning. As politicians, schoolteachers, and grandparents attempt to decipher what that might mean, Richard Rodriguez argues America has been brown from its inception, as he himself is. As a brown man, I think . . . (But do we really think that color colors thought?) In his two previous memoirs, Hunger of Memoryand Days of Obligation, Rodriguez wrote about the intersection of his private life with public issues of class and ethnicity.…
Regarding the relationship between the body and the mind, people cannot avoid two important philosophy concepts:, Physicalism, and Functionalism. Physicalism believes that the only substance exist is physical. Functionalism suggests that mental states are the internal cause of behavior.(Braddon-Mitchell&jackson p41). In this paper, I will mainly discuss four perspectives about Physicalism, Functionalism and the argument “ What is it like to be”. First, what’s Physicalism?…
In this paper, I will define and describe the mind body problem, defend the position of property dualism, support my claim through the problem of personal identity and the problem of interaction, and provide one refute using epiphenomenalism. The mind-body problem the question of how our consciousness is created through the interaction of mental and brain states. The best way to describe the interaction between mental and brain states is through property dualism. A supporting argument for property dualism is through the problem of personal identity. Through the problem of interacting, property dualism is further strengthened as an accurate way to describe the mind-body problem.…
The stimulus above is a quote from the movie ‘Blade Runner’. The quote above is delivered by a machine called a replicant, a machine that is capable of mimicking a human being. In suggesting that this machine is able to replicate a human in some emotional capacity, the stimulus raises the preliminary question of whether or not we can know what it is like to be a replicant (as it is something that mimics our own behaviours such as in the case of feeling sad)? If we can consider a replicant to be human, then ultimately, we can know what it is like to be a replicant. Thus if a replicant can mimic our own behaviours, can we call it human?…
Are mind and body essentially different? [Descartes, Conway, Cavendish] In 17th century philosophy, the mind-body issue surfaced many circulating viewpoints as to what the real relationship between the mind and the physical world is. This continuing dilemma brings up questions that have ongoing answers regarding if the mind and body are two substances or not, and how exactly the mind and body are related to each other. I am choosing to take a monist standpoint in this paper, expressing that the mind and body are in fact one substance and are not inherently different: matter cannot be infinitely divisible, there is no source of activity in the nature of matter being extended, and other body parts besides the mind have knowledge.…
Searle opens his essay “Animal Minds” by arguing that, “Many species of animals have consciousness, intentionality, and thought processes” (Animal Minds, 206). Searle goes on to define consciousness, more or less, as feelings of awareness during our waking lives, intentionality as the direction of the mind towards objects or affairs in the world, and thought processes, as sequences of intentional states that are related to one another. For Searle, these three phenomena are all related, and present, in far more creatures then just humans. He defends this idea by writing, “if the animal has a casually relevant structure similar to our own, then it is likely to produce the similar mental states in response to similar stimuli.” (Animal Minds, 217).…
Dualism vs Materialism The mind/body problem, the question of what is the relationship between the mind and the body, is commonly seen as a key issue in the philosophy of the mind (Sober, 2013, p. 204). The two categories of views discussed in Sober’s ‘Core Questions in Philosophy’ that attempt to resolve the mind/body problem are dualism and materialism. Dualism is the theory that the mind and the brain are two fundamentally different substances (Sober, 2013, p. 204). Conversely, materialism says that matter is the one and only fundamental substance in nature, and the notion that mental phenomena are a result of physical interactions follows (Sober, 2013, p. 204).…
If there was one article that really stuck out to me throughout the semester, it has to be Nagel’s “What Is It Like to Be a Bat”. It’s concept and philosophy fixed itself into me and I tried applying those ideas to other articles as we went on. This article addresses one of the big questions of consciousness that tends to float around when discussing philosophy, which is what is it like to be something other than yourself? It isn’t too often that you debate on whether or not something or someone is experiencing the same feelings obtained through the environment as you are.…
The reading one has chosen to critically analyse is Gilbert Ryle’s Descartes ' Myth. Ryle is attempting here to undermine what he dubs ‘The Official Doctrine’, which is the idea that the generally accepted answer to the mind-body problem is that of Cartesian Dualism, as presented by Descartes in the 17th Century. Ryle refers to the general acceptance as ‘The Dogma of The Ghost Machine’, as the Cartesian theory makes humans out to be just a ghost (mind) controlling a machine (body). Ryle’s main point of argument is not to simply debunk some factors or issues in the language of the theory, but to prove it entirely false, not in its details but in the principle itself.…
Then the Bosy which existered in the material space. However, John Searle’s views on dualism where known as supervenience theory. This theory believed that although they were the the mind and body consisted of the same substance but different aspects of the same substance. One could not exists without the other. They both did acknowledge that both mind and body substances…
The view of physicalism gives a stronger and more plausible answer to the mind-body problem. There are several reasons why this particular view gives a more sensible for answer to the problem at hand. These reasons include the rationale behind the reasoning of brain research, how the different aspects of reductive physicalism is able to address the non-physical aspects of the mind, as well as the less than sensible claims that the opposing view, dualism, presents in comparison. One of the main reasons why physicalism is able to prove itself to be the better answer to the mind-body problem is based off of research that society has learned about on the brain.…
In Intellect:Mind over Matter, Mortimer Adler probes the relationship between the mind and the body. He describes the four main theories regarding this relationship and separates them into two categories: extreme and moderate. Among the four theories, Adler argues in favor of moderate immaterialism. His argument is easily the most convincing as it accounts for the essential difference between man and animal, our intellect, while acknowledging the congruity between the mind and body.…
The critique of formalist philosophical methods as well as experimental science runs as a thematic undercurrent of all Merleau-Ponty’s work. Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology of Perception attempts to answer the mind/body debate by providing us an alternative to rationalism or empiricism. The work is structured as a critique of empiricism and intellectualism. Merleau-Ponty believes that the abstract and disembodied thinking present in such theories is problematic (Reynolds…