The Philosophy of Mind

Dualism vs Monism

What is the Philosophy of mind

Relationship between mind and body Identity Individual knowledge

Philosophers from ancient times to the present have struggled to understand the nature of the mind or soul, the nature of body, and the relations between them. Ancient thinkers, both eastern and western, have questioned whether there is some essential connection between the soul and God, whereas others have claimed that minds are physical things.

Are the mind and body one entity or are they two entirely different entities? What do you guys think before we start?

Dualism
There are three basic kinds of dualism
Substance (Descartes)
Mental substances are different from physical substances. Not only are the properties of a mental state are different from the properties of a physical state but they are made of different things The qualitative nature of consciousness is different from merely physical states it is emergent from those physical states but not the same

Property

Predicate
1) Mental predicates are necessary for a complete theory of the world 2) Mental predicates cannot be reduced to physical predicates E.g. water = h2o vs pain = firing of nerve fibres

Dualism
The differences between them are significant but for the purposes of this session we will look at Descartes notion of dualism

How do the mind and body interact?

If the mind and body are two separate entities then there must be some way in which they interact right?
What do you guys think how can they interact?

Descartes Fast facts

Born Died Nationality Era Region Religion Main interests Notable ideas 31 March 1596 La Haye en Touraine, Touraine,France 11 February 1650 (aged 53) Stockholm, Sweden French 17th-century philosophy Western Philosophy Roman Catholic Metaphysics, Epistemology, Mathematics Cogito ergo sum, method of doubt, Cartesian coordinate system, Cartesian dualism, ontological argument for the existence of Christian God,

Descartes response
Descartes dedicated much time to the study of the pineal (Pine-cone shaped) gland, has called it the "principal seat of the soul." He believed that it was the point of connection between the intellect and the body. Descartes attached significance to the gland because he believed it to be the only section of the brain which existed as a single part, rather than one half of a pair. He argued that because a person can never have "more than one thought at a time," external stimuli must be united within the brain before being considered by the soul, and he considered the pineal gland to be situated in "the most suitable possible place for this purpose," located centrally in the brain and surrounded by branches of the carotid arteries

Interactionism
To at least some degree mental states can cause physical states and vice versa

Epiphenomenalism
Mental events are caused by physical events but not vice versa

Parallelism
Mental events and physical events are in a kinds of continual harmony but neither causes the other

A dualist problem
The strangeness of the mental
Mental events have two unique properties
Subjectivity i.e. we experience them in a way which is potential different from others Intentionality i.e. we at least feel as though we intentionally chose a particular action (back to the free will debate )

Physical events have

Extension is space and time i.e. they take place in the 3D universe that we experience Are causally connected i.e. are linked to previous events (as we discussed in the last session)

How do we locate subjectivity and intentionality in space and time?

Dualism conclusion
Essentially the idea is based on some notion of the soul or higher power which is involved in human action
What do you thinkare you convinced?

Monism
The entire universe is made up of one entity

Spinoza fast facts

Born Died Residence Nationality Era Region Religion School 24 November 1632 Amsterdam, Dutch Republic 21 February 1677 (aged 44) The Hague, Dutch Republic Netherlands Dutch 17th-century philosophy Western Philosophy Jewish Rationalism, founder of Spinozism

Main interests
Notable ideas

Ethics, Epistemology, Metaphysics

Pantheism, Determinism,neutral monism, intellectual and religious freedom/separation of church and state, Criticism of Mosaic authorship of some books of the Hebrew Bible, Political society derived from power not contrac

Spinoza
Spinoza argued that based on Cartesian* assumptions, the apparent interaction of body and soul is a complete mystery, those assumptions must be altered. This is an early insight into the scientific method i.e. something which cannot be verified can be assumed to be true or false

*Descartes name is Cartesius in Latin

Spinoza continued
Spinoza argues that the entire universe is soullike Spinozas monistic idealism identifies all that exists with God. God and nature are two aspects of one thing. There is no distinct physical substance apart from God.

Physicalism
Physicalism is essentially the claim that everything is physical If we think about it in terms of the human being it would argue that all of our thoughts, emotions, experiences are the result of chemical processes there is nothing deeper

The Physicalism problem

Qualia A term used in philosophy to refer to individual instances of subjective, conscious experience. Examples of qualia are the pain of a headache, the taste of wine, or the perceived redness of an evening sky. A famous neuroscientist is confined to a black and white room. She learns about the world via black and white media such as tv, computers, newspapers, etc. Through study, she learns (knows) all that physical theory can teach her. When she is released into the world of colour, it is clear that she did not know what it is like for both herself and others to see colours.

Another challenge
Intentionality The aboutness of thought is difficult to explain within a physicalist account of meaning via a dispositional theory of meaning a word means what its use suggests e.g. we use the word blue to talk about blue things) Imagine a situation in which: (a) the dispositional theory (i.e. the word blue means the colour blue) is true (b) the word red means red for a Josh Back (c) Josh Back misapplies the word e.g. he describes a white object viewed through red lenses as red (he doesnt know its white) So Josh applies red to things which are either red or white but viewed through red lenses Therefore the combination of a, b and c leads to a contradiction The dispositional account of meaning cannot be true This idea relies on the theory of knowledge which is the topic for our next session

The Zombie Case

A zombie is a hypothetical being that is indistinguishable from a normal human being except that it lacks consciousness, qualia1, or sentience2 Since a zombie is indistinguishable from human beings physiologically and contains all processes that are required to maintain a human being; its hypothetical possibility is an argument for the presence of advanced human consciousness which is more than the sum of human neurological pathways and brain state.
1

The ability to feel, perceive, or be conscious, or to experience subjectivity 2 A term used in philosophy to refer to individual instances of subjective, conscious experience. Examples of qualia are the pain of a headache, the taste of wine, or the perceived redness of an evening sky.

This leads to the question of identity

Is identity the product of our physical existence or does it represent some deeper spiritual/metaphysical* world

* Meta - Beyond; transcending

Teleportation
Lets say we have a teleporter which works by mapping every quantum particle of you, creating an exact replica at the destination. At the same instant destroying the original. The person who steps out of the machine on the other end will be an exact replica of me. This person will look, think, and behave exactly as I do.

But will this person be me?

Lets say that the machine breaks and replicates me at the destination but doesnt destroy me at the original site.

Are both of these people me?

More on this next time.

What do you guys think?

Where do you fall on the monism vs dualism debate? Where do you fall on the question of identity?