Physicalism

fallacy of question begging. That is, it assumes materialism to already be true. To be fair, it is too strong of a claim to say that this argument proves SR. Rather, it merely shows the incentives to accept SR for those who are already proponents of physicalism. When evaluated purely as an argument for the validity of SR however, it fails to deliver. Arguments for SR:…

In this essay I will argue that functionalism is the right way to view the ideology of the inverted spectrum. I will first briefly explain the inverted spectrum, then stating why it is a problem for functionalist’s. I will follow by considering the objections to functionalism due to it’s uncertainty to explain why different people feel the same experience. However, I will argue it is the best way when thinking about the inverted spectrum because although it may remain a “subjective experience”…

Normally the individual would describe the mind-body problem as the mind being non-physical and the body being physical. Mind is software in the brain's hardware. The "stuff" of mind is pure information. Information is neither matter nor energy, though it needs matter for its embodiment and energy for its communication. The mind-body problem tries to explain the relationship between mental processes and the likes of beliefs, actions, and thinking. The approaches to this problem is usually…

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. A viable solution is Armstrong 's approach of incorporating the two, but I believe this needs to be freed of the confines of the scientific approach. We must address the issue of…

Inside Out is a film that is about one main character, Riley. The film shows us how from the time of Riley’s birth until eleven years of age, how her emotions change as the older she gets. The first emotion that Riley is born with is Joy. Joy is always happy, and looks to the brighter side of anything negative. Next came sadness. Sadness seems to always look down on everything, or finds the negative in everything. Fear was third to arrive. He gave Riley a sense of caution in times of danger…

physicalist view. He believes that qualitative consciousness cannot be a physical thing. Although most of his paper, Naming and Necessity, is mostly about a way of understanding modal semantics, a section of his paper presents an argument against physicalism. If Kripke’s argument is correct, it could mean that consciousness is not something that could be explained by anything physical. So consciousness…

The thought experiment of "The Problem of Mary" was generated by Frank Jackson to exhibit the non-physical characteristic of the mental state. The experiment goes as the following: Mary, a brilliant scientist, has lived her life surrounded by only a black and white setting. She did not have access to color, for there were not even any colored devices that she owned in her room. Mary acquires access to the outside world only through her computer, which only as a black and white display as well.…

The mind-brain problem, previously called the mind body problem was initially conceptualised by Descartes following his work on the metaphysical aspects of the soul during the 17th century. Descartes described the mind and brain in his book the Meditations on First Philosophy; "But what then am I? A thing that thinks. What is that? A thing that doubts, understands, affirms, denies, wills, refuses, and which also imagines and senses.” Descartes proposed that the mind and body are separate and…

The view that we are human animals, "animalism", is a very unpopular view. Personally, I am in agreement with this view. I will explain how I understand the claim that we are animals as well as make a case for this unpopular view. Eric Olson is interested in issues involving what we essentially are. His definition of animalism is that “each of us is numerically identical with an animal. There is a certain human organism, and that organism is you. You and it are one and the same”. According to…