McMahan and Dennett Flashcards
What is Cartesian Dualism?
Philosophy: Substance Dualism
Claim: Mind and body are distinct substances; the mind (or soul) is immaterial, while the body is physical. They interact through the pineal gland (Descartes’ proposal).
What is Cartesian Interactionism?
Claim: The immaterial mind and material body causally interact.
Mechanism: Descartes proposed the pineal gland as the interaction point.
McMahan’s Main Objection to Cartesian Dualism
Claim: If the soul is immaterial, it shouldn’t be affected by physical damage.
Objection: Neurological evidence shows mental functions (e.g., emotion, memory, imagination) are impaired by brain damage—implying dependence on the physical brain.
Philosophy: Neuroscience-based Materialism
Examples Used by McMahan to Undermine Dualism
Perception: Prosopagnosia due to damage in occipital/fusiform areas
Emotion: Phineas Gage’s personality changed after brain injury
Memory: Henry Molaison’s amnesia after hippocampal removal
Imagination: Charcot-Wilbrand Syndrome post-stroke
Language: Receptive aphasia after Wernicke’s area damage
🧠 These examples suggest that cognition is brain-dependent, not soul-based
Why is Soul-Body Dependence a Problem?
Objection: If the soul is the seat of thought and is independent of matter, why does brain damage alter or eliminate mental abilities?
Philosophical Implication: This contradicts dualism; instead, it supports monism/materialism.
Dennett’s “Cartesian Theater”
Philosophy: Critique of Cartesian Dualism
Concept: A metaphorical inner stage where the mind “watches” sensory inputs as if in a theater.
Dennett’s Objection: This implies a “homunculus” (little observer in the brain), which leads to an infinite regress—who watches the homunculus?
Dennett’s Response to Cartesian Theater
Claim: Consciousness is not localized or centralized.
Alternative: Multiple Drafts Model—perception and consciousness are distributed and revisable across brain processes, not played out in a single “theater”.
What is the “Homunculus Fallacy”?
Objection: Assuming a self-aware mini-person inside the brain to “observe” mental events.
Why It Fails: Leads to infinite regress (who observes the observer?).
Dennett’s View: Reject this in favor of distributed processing without a central self.
Unified Objection from McMahan & Dennett
Shared Critique: Dualism fails to explain mental impairment from physical causes and relies on outdated metaphors (e.g., theater, soul).
Philosophical Shift: Toward physicalism and functionalism in mind theory.
What Philosophical Frameworks Oppose Cartesian Dualism?
Physicalism: Mind is brain-based; mental states are physical states.
Functionalism: Mental states are defined by their function, not by a special substance.
Eliminative Materialism: Rejects folk-psychological notions like “soul” entirely.
