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 aspectual shape?
The way the intentional object is represented
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
