Dualism (Descartes)

Question 1

What are the two approaches to the mind-body problem

Answer 1

1) Monism
2) Dualism

Question 2

Define Monoism

Answer 2

monoism is:
either physical or non-physical

physicalists believe in the physical and idealists believe in the non-physical. However, they only believe in one.

Question 3

Define Dualism

Answer 3

Dualism is the belief that there is the physical and non-physical in the world. Dualists believe in both as opposed to the belief in just one

Question 4

What are the two types of dualism in a Theory of Mind

Answer 4

Interactionism and Non-interactionism

Question 5

What is interactionism?

Answer 5

it is a kind of dualism that maintains the mind and body causaly interact

Question 6

What is Non-interactionism?

Answer 6

mind and body do not consciously interact

Question 7

Why would one believe in dualism (3)

Answer 7

1) how we know about our minds is in a substantially (uniquely) different way than the way know about bodies, physical objects, even our own bodies.

2) Mental content is private and subjective. Bodies are public and objective

3) What we know about our minds is more clear than what we know about bodies

4) We seem to have free will

Question 8

When did Rene Descartes live?

Answer 8

March 31st 1596 - February 11th 1650

Question 9

What were the three studies Descartes engulf himself in?

Answer 9

1) Philosopher
2) Scientist
3) Mathematician

Question 10

Who was the “father of modern philosophy”

Answer 10

Renes Descartes

Question 11

What was Renes Descartes an early supporter of?

Answer 11

Rationalism

Question 12

Who invented the Cartesian Coordinate System?

Answer 12

Renes Descartes

Question 13

What are the two major areas in the meditations?

Answer 13

Epistemology and Meta-physics

Question 14

What is the goal of the mediations?

Answer 14

To establish thing that are stable and likely to last

Question 15

What is the skeptical worry in mediations?

Answer 15

Some beliefs that are perceived to be true turn out to be false

Question 16

What is the problem in Meditations?

Answer 16

The problem is how can one determine which beliefs are reliable

Question 17

What its the solution to the problem in Meditations?

Answer 17

Hyperbolic Doubt

Question 18

What is hyperbolic doubt?

Answer 18

1) consider each belief and if one has any reason to doubt the belief whatsoever, then admit it they dont know it to be true

2) if any belief is impossible to doubt, then one can find certainty in that belief

Lay-terms: any reason to doubt is reject. Impossible to doubt= knowledge

Question 19

What are the problems with knowing (arguments)?

Answer 19

1) Argument from senses
2) The Dream Argument (argument from insanity)
3) The Demon Argument

Question 20

Describe Argument from Senses

Answer 20

1) The senses deceive (think mirages)
2) beliefs from sense aren’t perfect reliable

Question 21

Describe The Dream Argument (Argument from Insanity)

Answer 21

• could be asleep
  -could be seriously mentally ill
  -could be a patient in a mental hospital that has made up an elaborate illusion
  -could be dreaming and we are asleep
  -no way to distinguish dreaming from being awake

Question 22

Describe the Demon Argument

Answer 22

There is a superior being that is supremely evil. The being is deceiving knowledge or beliefs (1+1=2 one when it could be 3). Could be deceiving that a physical, external world even exists.

Question 23

What are the overall themes in Mediation 2

Answer 23

1) a description of the human mind
2) the second one is how it’s better known than the body

Question 24

What is the first item of knowledge Descartes discovers in the 2nd mediation

Answer 24

if one is being deceived (by the demon) then to be deceived one must therefore exist, even if mistaken on all other aspects.

Question 25

"_________________ is necessarily true whenever it is put forward by me or conceived in my mind."

Answer 25

I am, I exist

Question 26

What is the famous words of Descartes put into lay-terms?

Answer 26

I think therefore I am

Question 27

"I am____"

Answer 27

a thinking thing

Question 27

What does Descartes affirm he is?

Answer 27

Thinking

Question 28

“What am I?…A thing that ___________________, and also imagines and has sensory perceptions.”

Answer 28

doubts, understands, affirms, denies, willing and unwilling, imagines and sensory perceptions

Question 29

What is the upshot of Descartes First item of knowledge

Answer 29

even if the body doesn't exist I still exist

Question 30

Explain the goals of the wax passage?

Answer 30

1) To determine the essential nature of a particular body of wax or to determine the nature of a physical object. 2) is to look at how do we identify particular physical objects?

Question 31

“The ______ was not after all the sweetness of the honey, or the fragrance of the flowers, or the whiteness, or the _____, or the _____, but was rather a _____ which presented itself to me in these various forms a little while ago, but which now exhibits different ones...take away everything which does not belong to the wax, and see what is left: _________________.”

Answer 31

“The ___wax___ was not after all the sweetness of the honey, or the fragrance of the flowers, or the whiteness, or the _shape____, or the _sound____, but was rather a ___body___ which presented itself to me in these various forms a little while ago, but which now exhibits different ones...take away everything which does not belong to the wax, and see what is left: ___merely something extended, flexible and changeable__.”

Question 32

The essential natures of the bodies is_________

Answer 32

extension (something located in space)

Question 33

were the essential features of the wax smell, sight etc..? According to Descartes

Answer 33

No these are not the essential natures because when they change we still recognize it as wax or candle

Question 34

What is extension according to Descartes?

Answer 34

If something has extension it means that the object is located in space (extending in space) (occupying spaces)

Question 35

The essential nature of bodies is_______

Answer 35

extension

Question 36

Summary of Argument 1: 1) all physical things are_____ 2) But I (my mind) is_________ 3) And thinking things are___________________ 4) So I (my mind)____________ 5)Therefore, I (my mind) am_________________

Answer 36

1) essentially extended things 2) essentially a thinking thing 3) not essentially extended thing 4) is not essentially an extended thing 5) not essentially a physical thing

Question 37

what is the goal of mediation 6

Answer 37

to identify and argue the distinction of mind and body

Question 38

what is another goal from mediation?

Answer 38

to prove the material world exists (ignore this goal though)

Question 39

what is the expression or formula for understanding

Answer 39

C/D about x=x

Question 40

Fill in the following blanks for the following argument The________Argument 1) Whatever I can clearly and distinctly__________________

Answer 40

Real Distinction 1) understand it could be is exactly how I understand it

Question 41

Provide an Example to the Real Distinction Argument

Answer 41

If I can clearly and distinctly understand a mountain of gold then it is possible (doesn't mean that it is true) but it is possible versus a married bachelor

Question 42

Fill in the blank for the second premise of The real distinction argument: 2) If I can clearly and distinctly_____________________

Answer 42

2) understand one thing apart from another they must be distinct

Question 43

Fill in the blanks for the following argument The_______Argument 1) Whatever I can_____________ it could be is exactly how I understand it 2) If I can clearly and distinctly_____________________ 3) well I have a _____________________ 4) I can clearly and distinctly understand my_________ 5) Therefore,_______________________

Answer 43

1) clearly and distinctly understand 2) understand one thing apart from another they must be distinct 3) clear and distinct understanding of my mind 4) mind apart from my body 5) my mind and body must be distinct

Question 44

Fill in the blanks for the following quote on the_________argument “...there is a great difference between the mind and the body; inasmuch as the body is by its very nature ________, while the mind is utterly _________. For when I consider the mind, or myself in so far as I am merely a thinking thing, I am unable to distinguish ___________; I understand myself to be something quite single and complete...I recognize that if a foot or arm or any other part of the body is cut off, nothing has thereby been taken away from the mind.

Answer 44

1) divisible 2) indivisible 3) any part within myself

Question 45

summarize the Divisibility Argument 1) I can ____________ 2) But I cannot _____________ 3) 4) this entails that ________________ 5) Therefore, _____________ 6) 7) So the mind must be _____________________

Answer 45

1) divide physical objects 2) divide my mind 3) If the physical object can always be divided but my mind cannot be divide, my mind can't be a physical object. 4) my mind cannot be a brain since a brain is an example of a physical object 5) my mind is not the same as my brain 6)