Eliminative materialism

As discussed, there are a number of common arguments against the eliminative materialism’s claim. In this section, I will highlight and review a number of reasonable objections to eliminativism, such as the Commonsense Objections to eliminative materialism, which suggests that it is completely absurd or self-refuting. I will conclude that many of the arguments set forth by Eliminative Materialism, are not really convincing and that eliminativism needs to do more than simply show that FP is largely wrong. COMMON -SENSE OBJECTIONS 1. EM is completely absurd! - According to behaviourist, our everyday speech could be true: e.g., John smashed the computer because he was angry. The behaviourist may say that there is nothing wrong with this sentence;…

Eliminative materialism is the view that in order to recognize and describe what exists in the world, it is necessary to eliminate anything mental, such as the mind, mental states and mental properties. In addition, eliminative materialism stresses on the assumption that folk psychology is an outdated theory that must be eliminated, as behaviours are neurological processes and not caused by mental states. In this paper, I will be criticizing eliminative materialism by explaining the importance…

validity of a functionalist’s ontology. As a result, the concept of eliminative materialism must be brought to attention. Before eliminative materialism is further discussed, however, please note the term “folk psychology” should be defined as the popular common thought among a certain people. An eliminative materialist would claim folk psychology to be “an incomplete representation of our inner natures, it is an outright misrepresentation of our internal states” (339). Historically, our common…

analyse and describe a complex phenomenon it must be reduced to its fundamental constituents. For example, how Biology can for the most part be explained through physics and chemistry, and chemistry to physics, etc. It is through this that the argument of consciousness being an emergent phenomenon arises. Economist Jeffrey Goldstein theorised emergent phenomena as “the arising novel and coherent structures, patterns, and properties during the process of self-organisation in complex systems”…

even though the mind and body are not made of the same substance, the material or physical (the brain for example), causes the immaterial (thinking). David Chalmers was the major proponent for this theory. The alternative view to the body-mind problem is known as the Monistic Materialistic view. This argument is the opposite of the dualistic view. It basically states that the body and the mind are made of one substance. Monism is a view that is agreed upon by physicalist and idealists, since…

physicalism, dualism, and idealism. Of these three theories, I agree the most with physicalism. Physicalism states that physical states are more important than mental states. This theory suggest that people’s physical states can explain their mental states. Rauhut describes the relationship of Mark Twain and Huckleberry Finn, Huckleberry would not exist if Mark Twain never imagined him. This is true for any fictional character, whether it be Harry Potter or Goldilocks. All fictional characters…

The metaphysics of ancient Hawai’i are unique and reflect metaphysics of both dualistic and monistic ways of thinking. As I address that theory in this paper I will be comparing and contrasting the difference in the Western philosophies of Plato to that of old Hawai’i before the coming of the Christians missionaries in 1820. I will also explain the ways in which I found ancient Hawaiians were also similar to Eastern monistic ways of thinking. In both cases, Hawai’i seems to be unique because…

delivers a strong point that disproves Descartes’ entire proclamation and that is the concept of neural phenomena. Scientific data has yet to disprove that all human mental phenomena are reliant upon neural phenomena stimulated by our senses. One can never observe the human minds’ functionality without also observing the human brain operating as well. Because this correlational relationship is best illustrated by materialism (physicalism) in regards to the human mind, it is evident that…

The physical medium and the mental medium work in an entirely different way. When modern spiritualism came about they dedicated their lives to developing spiritually, they had home circles. In this present world people are pre-occupied with social media additionally mobiles, lending itself more to mental mediumship and less dedication. To explain the difference between physical and mental mediumship, we will look at two words ectoplasm and mind. Lets look at physical mediumship, it requires a…

stabbed by his son while gushing out hundred dollar bills. The father exclaims “Thank god—those Ben Franklins were / Clogging up my heart” in order to communicate to his son that his greed and materialism has lead him to an unfulfilled life and if the teacher takes the same road he too will lead an unfulfilling life. This dream of his father widens our perspective as we now have insight on three different generations rather than just the teacher’s and student’s generations. Seeing that the…