Property dualism Flashcards
What is property dualism?
The mind and body are one substance but the brain has special non-physical properties no other physical property can have (mental phenomena)
What does it mean for mental properties to be emergent?
They can only appear when ordinary biological matter is able to arrange itself into a complex system. Mental properties are a special kind as they are irreducible to physical matter.
Explain the P zombies argument
It’s conceivable for everyone to be a P-Zombie- physically and functionally identical to me but lacking any consciousness, no introspection or qualia. We can apply this to a whole universe physically identical and functional duplicate to earth without any consciousness. God could have created a universe this way lacking consciousness, but I am conscious. God has added a non physical component to the universe.
What does the P Zombies argument show?
Physicalism (MBTI) and behaviourism is false. It supports property dualism.
Issues with P-Zombies
A zombie world is not conceivable. The sentence ‘functional duplicate’ seems incomplete and an empty sentence. Qualia is part of the physical world.
-What is metaphysically possible tells us nothing about the real world.
-What is conceivable need not be metaphysically possible. Logically coherent thought but ‘physicalism’ means it’s not metaphysically possible.
Explain Mary/Knowledge argument
Supports property dualism, against physicalism. Mary knows everything there is about the colour red, all the science and theories but lives in a world of black and white. When she sees red, has she learnt something new? She has learnt a fact about a new phenomenal property (to see colour) so not everything is physical, physicalism is wrong.
Mary knowledge criticism: Mary gains no new propositional knowledge only acquaintance knowledge
Qualia is acquaintance knowledge (knowing what, who), so Mary is becoming acquainted with a fact she already knew.
Mary knowledge criticism: All physical knowledge would include knowledge of Qualia
WORDING. “Mary knows all the physical facts about red”. If mary knew all the physical facts it would contain the qualia. For Eliminative materialism and functionalism, there is no qualia as there’s no mental states.
Mary knowledge criticism: Mary gains new propositional knowledge
She now has a 1st person perspective rather than 3rd person. The new subjective access is a different way of expressing the same neurological states she knew in 3rd person
Mary knowledge criticism: Qualia doesn’t exist so Mary gains no propositional knowledge
The Churchlands- If Mary viewing colour and that experience links to mental states which should be eliminated then Mary doesn’t learn anything new.v
PD criticism: The issue of other minds
Dualism argues my mind is perceived by introspection, while the external world, so other minds, indirectly via the senses. We can only make a generalisation of someone’s mental state. Therefore we lack any firm basis for positing the existence of other minds.
PD criticism: The issue of other minds RESPONSE
We learn the connection between behaviour and mental state by observing our own case. We suppose there’s an analogous connection in other people. My foot steps on a nail and I feel pain in my mind and scream, when observing someone else they do the same.
