problem 2 - the ghost in the machine Flashcards
substances & substance dualism
substances = an individual thing that can exist by itself, independently of other substances
substance dualism = the view that the mind and body are distinct in the sense that they can exist independently of each other, or are substances
interactionist substance dualism
the view that these 2 substances/things (mind & body) can interact casually
e.g. when the body takes in too much beer, the mind becomes confused, and one’s mood may change
- the physical substance or “the body” is interacting, or certainly seeming to, with the nonphysical substance or “the mind”
it is possible that I should wake up with my mind and consciousness intact and my body gone - this possibility is the central claim of dualism
- not that they DO exist without one another, but that they CAN
the mind-body problem
how can the mind & body interact if one is physical (spatial) and the other is non-physical (non-spatial)?
the pairing problem
if the body and mind are independent of each other, how is my body paired with my mind and your body paired with your mind?
how does the mind know which body to interact with?
this problem can be answered, but substance dualism must be set aside - instead use property dualism
property dualism
sees clearly the difficulties of 2 interacting but distinct substances & proposes a dualism not of substances/things, but of their properties
- there is only one substance but it has 2 sorts of properties: physical & non-physical
denies that the mind & body are distinct, since the mind is a physical thing = mind & body can interact nicely = solution to mind-body problem
problem: although it may be true that abstract/aesthetic properties do not have actual effects, mental properties (thought/feelings) certainly do
parallelism (substance dualism)
mind (non-physical part) and body (physical part) are distinct & exist independently, but do not interact
3 propositions:
1. the mind is a nonphysical thing
2. the body is a physical thing
3. physical and nonphysical things cannot interact
while there is no interaction, there is a correlation between what happens in the body and what happens in mind (drinking alcohol correlates with confusion in the mind)
causal interaction (parallelism)
synchronization - explains why the thoughts of the mind and the actions of the body occur at the same time but without interaction
although it may sometimes seem like a cause-effect relationship exists, this is not the case
occasionalism (substance dualism)
takes the view that parallelism is true, but that physical events in the body are the occasion for god to act in the mind, and vice versa
epiphenomenalism (substance dualism)
the mind is a by-product of the body - mental is by-product of physical
the view that physical events cause mental events but mental events do not cause physical events
everything that happens in your consciousness (mental events) is a by-product of everything that happens physically = one-way relationship
emergentism (substance dualism)
the mind emerges from the body
a view of the relation between mind & body very similar to epiphenomenalism (the physical is dominant & the mental is a by-product) but states that the mutual relationship between mental and physical is much closer
accept and deny that mind is physical
supervenience (emergentism)
states that the body is physical, but the body and mind do not interact
- instead the mind supervises the body (specifically the brain) → the mind oversees the body
not all emergentists believe in this
materialism/physicalism (monism)
everything that exists is physical - so the mind is a physical thing, if it is a thing
solves mind-body problem - the mind is physical so there is nothing stopping it from interacting w the body
agrees that physical & non-physical cannot interact but assumes that non-physical things do not exist
behaviorism (materialism)
the view that the mental is the behavioral: the mind is the body, considered from the point of view of its behavior
criticism: problem of absent qualia + doesn’t address inverted spectrum (differences between ppl)
qualia
qualia = the experiences that make up our consciousness (seeing red, feeling pain, etc.).
- everyone sees that a rose has the color red - the behavior is the same here because everyone indicates that the rose is red
- however, the experience may differ: the color red for person 1 may look different from the color red for person 2 (inverted spectrum)
the identity theory (materialism)
claims that mind & brain are identical to each other
- every mental event is a physiological event within the nervous system
- solves the mind-body problem by denying that the mind is a non-physical thing
two main problems
1. the definition of the brain and the mind in and of themselves are not the same
2. if it is assumed that the brain is equal to the mind, then the mind should also be equal to the brain
- if mind = brain, they are both physical (materialism)
- but if brain = mind, both are not physical (idealism)
token identity theory (materialism)
every individual mental event/state is identical to some specific physical event/state in the brain
- for every particular instance or token of a mental state, there is a corresponding token of a physical state in the brain
type: can be seen as a general category consisting of different tokens - e.g. the general feeling of pain (that anyone can feel)
tokens: these are examples/parts of categories - e.g. the place or the moment that someone feels pain individually
functionalism (materialism)
your mental states are functional states caused by the body; the body can be seen as a kind of computer
- denies that the mind is non-physical, not because they think it is physical but because it is as wrong to think of the mind as a thing as it would be to think of a computer program as just another physical thing
multiple realizability thesis = the proposition that one mental state can be realized in multiple very different ways
eliminativism (materialism)
tries to eliminate mental concepts/ideas by explaining them using pure physical terms → if you cannot see something, it does not exist and does not require attention
solves the body-mind problem by denying that the mind is non-physical because there is no mind
only looks at the body and can be compared to hard-core behaviorists
- there are no non-physical things; all these things, including the mind, are part of folk mythology
idealism (monism)
everything is spiritual, or that everything is mental - is the opposite of physicalism
- there are no physical things: anything physically present to us is just an illusion caused by our mind
no issue with the mind-body problem bcuz it states that nothing is physical
phenomenalism (idealism)
all knowledge can be based on sense perceptions, but precisely because you base everything on your senses, the information can also be wrong (because your senses are not infallible)
cannot be proven that the things you perceive exist - everything you perceive physically can eventually be traced back to experiences in your mind, just representations of things
double aspect theory (neutral)
there is only 1 substance or ultimately real thing in the universe, but it can be viewed under 2 complementary aspects: extension and thought
- human beings can be viewed under the aspect of extension (as a body) or under the aspect of thought (as a mind)
- there are however not 2 things here = they cannot interact
e.g you can categorize a book by price or genre, but it is still the same book = no interaction takes place
the official doctrine
states that every human being has both a body & a mind
- proposed by descartes
- the body is visible to the outside world (other ppl can see it)
- but the workings of one’s mind are not visible to others - it is private to the individual
