Substance dualism Flashcards
Define the mind body problem
The problem of describing and explaining the relationship between our mental states and physical states
Define the hard problem of consciousness
The problem of analysing and explaining the phenomenal properties of consciousness, what it is like to undergo a conscious experience
Define phenomenal consciousness
A form of consciousness with a subjective experiential quality as involved in perception, sensation and emotion. Awareness of ‘ what it is like ‘ to experience such a mental phenomena
Define Intentionality
The property of the mental states whereby they are directed towards an intentional object. For example, a belief that Paris is the capital of France is about Paris.
How do intentional states represent the world
in particular and partial ways
Define aspectual shape
The way the intentional object is represented
Define phenomenal properties
experiential properties of concousness mental states which determine the phenomal character of what it is like to undergo that mental state, eg. What it is like to feel pain
What is Qualia
Phenomenal properties understood as intrinsic, non-intentional and introspectively accessible properties of mental states
Define a substance and a property
Substance : an entity which does not friend upon another entity for it continued existence ( ontologically Independent)
Property: ontologically dependant on substances
What is the essential property of mind ( substance dualism )
Thought , and essentially unified
What is the essential property of body ( substance dualism )
Extension
Descartes indivisibility arguent
- My mind is essentially unified and so indivisible
- Matter is not essentially unified and is infinitely divisible
- Therefore, mind and matter are non-identical, distinct substances
what is an international object?
It is what an intentional mental state represents
What is Intentional content?
It is intentional object and aspectual shape
What is attitude?
The psychological verb we would use for the intentional mental state
What is substance dualism?
It is the view that mind and body are distinct, separate substances
Leibniz’s law of indescernibility of identicals
If X and Y are identical, then X and Y have all their properties in common. Therefore, if X and Y have different properties, they are not identical
Response to Descartes’s indivisibility: the mental is divisible in some sense
In certain cases mind can be divisible, and therefore is not “essentially unified and so indivisible” as Descartes states. Cases of mental illness: multiple personality syndrome might be used to suggest that the mind can be divided as certain parts of the mind are unable to communicate with others. Theories of the unconsciousness may also suggest that the mind does have parts - people may believe or desire one thing concussion but unconsciously believe or desire something really different
Response to Descartes’s indivisibility: not everything thought of as physical is divisible
Disability may not be an essential property of physical substance as Descartes claims. Perhaps, the some physical things cannot be divided even in principle, regardless of what technology you use. For example, the smallest physical particles are best understood as packets of energy or force fields, then we cannot further divide these - you cannot have half a force field. Waves also cannot be divided spatially, but from a fundamental part of the partial universe.
Descartes’ conceivability argument
- I have clear and distinct idea of myself as something that thinks and isn’t extended
- I have a clear and distinct idea of body as something that is extended and doesn’t think
- If I have a clear and distinct thought of something, God can create it in a way that corresponds to my thought
C1. Therefore, God can greater mind as something that thinks and isn’t extended and body as extended and doesn’t think
C2. Therefore, mind and body can exist independently of one another
C3. Therefore, mind and body are two distinct substances
define epiphenomenalist substance dualism
Non-interactionist: epiphenomenalist forms of substance dualism deny any causal relationship between mind and body. Epiphenomenalism substance dualism is the view that mental states have no causal power and do not cause any physical events nor mental events, mental states are merely by-products of physical processes in the brain and do not influence behaviour or other mental states.
issue with epiphenomenalist substance dualism
1: Is counterintuitive
—-> this is counterintuitive because it seems to remove the role of the mind and reducing it to simply a computer which detects a sensation. We would question if the mind remains a substance if it become dependent on other process occurring. Is it still ontologically independent then? If not then substance dualism is false.
2:cannot explain self-knowledge
—> Is Epiphenomenalism is true then my belief that I am in pain will not be caused by a sensation of pain I could have the sensation of pain without the belief and vice versa.
what is elizabeths of bohemia objection to intrecationist substance dualism
Cartesian Substance dualism claims that the mind has the essential property of thought ( a non physical substance) and the body having the physical property of extension ( a physical substance ). It I so void that these two interact frequently but the nature of this intrication is what the conceptual intrication problem targets. If an object moves it is because a physical force has acted upon it. So when you phone a friend your body moves which is a used by a thought in your mind. However is the mind has no physical extension or force then it has no way of actually bringing about the movement of the physical body, as they do not touch or make any contact. And so with the mind and body both being ontologically independent and the mind non-physical, the mind cannot move the body.
what is the empirical interaction objection to inetractionist SD
P1. If the mind, as a non physical substance, moved the body, the total amount of energy in the universe would increase.
P2. If the total amount of energy in the universe increased, the law of conservation oof energy would not apply to the universe and the universe is not a closed system.
C1. Therefore if the mind moved the body, the law of conservation of energy would not apply and the universe would not be a closed system.
C2. Therefore because the mind which changes the physical energy in the universe, is not itself physical, physics cannot give us the complete correct account of physical energy I the universe.
what is descartes reply to the objection to indivisibility arguement that the mind is divisible
both these examples only show the mind to be divisible in terms of function but I am concerned with spatial divisibility which stand because even if a part of the brain can be removed and then speech is removed this only shows functional divisibility.
what is descartes reply to the objection to indivisibility arguement that not everything physical is divisible
This objection misunderstands the type of divisibility Descartes refers to in his argument. When Descartes claims that physical substances are divisible, he is not talking about physival possibility of division, but rather logical divisibility — the idea that physical substances ahve extension and therefore have parts. Even if a subatomic particle cannot be actually divided, it is still extended in space and thus conceptually divisible in terms of location or measurable attributes.
In contrast, the mind is not extended in space. It has no spatial dimensions, and therefore cannot be broken down into spatial parts . This makes the mind indivisible in a stronger, more essential sense — not just undivided, but incapable of division because it lacks the very property (extension) that would make division possible
what is leibniz law of the indiscernibility of identicals
if X and Y are identical then they share all the same properties
