The Mind-Body Problem and Philosophical Brances

Question 1

What is the mind-body problem?

Answer 1

The problem of understanding the relationship between the mind and body. Is the mind and body two distinct entities or do they interact? Are mental phenomena such as experiences, belief and desires, actually phenomena of the physical brain?

Question 2

Who is Rene Descartes?

Answer 2

• French mathematician, scientist and philosopher.
• Lived from 1596 to 1650.
• Most commonly known for his philosophical statement, “I think, therefore I am” (in Latin: “Cogito, ergo sum”).
• Discovered/formulated the mind-body problem.
• Represented mind-body dualism, i.e. minds and bodies are distinct kind of substances.
• Res extensa and res cogitans

Question 3

What is res extensa and res cogitans?

Answer 3

The terms were introduced by Rene Descartes.

Res extensa: Extended things, the physical world, bodies, spatial characteristics (height, position, depth, length), incapable of feeling or thought, all animals, all non-human things, human bodies, example oil painting og a vivisection of a dog.

Res cogitans: Thinking things, mind and consciousness, no spatial characteristics, unextended things, example human soul.

Question 4

Where is the pineal gland located?

Answer 4

The pineal gland is a very small gland located in the center of the brain in the epithalamus between the two hemispheres.

Question 5

What is the biological function of the pineal gland?

Answer 5

Regulates sleep patterns: Receive information about the state of the light-dark cycle from the environment (also called “third eye”). Conveys this information to produce and secrete the hormone melatonin.

Question 6

What is Rene Descartes’ view on the pineal gland?

Answer 6

• The principal seat of the soul.
• The area in the brain where soul and body come together.
• The place in which all our thoughts are formed.
• Descartes tried to explain most of our mental life in terms of processes involving the pineal gland (e.g. sensation, imagination, memory, causation of bodily movements).

Question 7

What is the dualists view on the mind-body problem?

Answer 7

• The mind and body are two separated phenomena.
• Rene Descartes 17th century (res extensa, res cogitans).
• Mental phenomena belong to the mind which is a special, non-physical substance, a ghost in a machine.
• Dualists therefore believe that neuroscience cannot tell us something about the nature of the mind.

Question 8

Why does the dualists view on the mind-body problem fail?

Answer 8

Because science in physics, molecular biology, evolutionary biology and neuroscience has progressed, whereas empirical evidence for a special soul-stuff (spooky stuff) hasn’t.

Question 9

What is materialism?

Answer 9

Materialism is the belief that nothing exists apart from the material world (i.e. physical matter like the brain).

Stands in contrast to idealism.

Question 10

What is the materialists view on the mind-body problem?

Answer 10

Materialists believe that the mind (consciousness) is the function of the brain.

Question 11

What is the task of a materialist?

Answer 11

Reduce mind to matter.

Question 12

What is identity theory?

Answer 12

A version of physicalism.

Incorporates both the mind and the brain.

Also known as reductive materialism.

Mental states are identical with certain brain states.

Question 13

What is identity theory a sub-theory of?

Answer 13

Identity theory is one view of modern materialism.

Question 14

How do identity theorists explain behaviour?

Answer 14

To explain behaviour, identity theorists refer to inner representations and what the brain is actually doing.

Question 15

How do identity theorists explain behaviour?

Answer 15

To explain behaviour, identity theorists refer to inner representations and what the brain is actually doing.

Question 16

A different approach to the mind-body problem is whether you can get a unified science of the mind-brain. Theory Dualism argues that it is not possible. Why?

Answer 16

1. Neuroscience is too hard: The brain is too complex, too many neurons, too many connections-
2. The argument from multiple instantiability: Psychological states are functional states and can be implemented in multiple ways. So no functional cognitive proces can be reduced to behaviour of particular neuronal systems.
3. Psychological states have intentionality: Semantic content, they represent things.

Question 17

What is realism?

Answer 17

• A philosophical branch developed by Aristotle.
• Reality exists in the external world. What one perceives through one’s senses is real.
• E.g. the tree that I perceive outside is real in the external world, it is not just an abstract concept produced by the mind.
• E.g. the soul and God do not exist because they cannot be known through senses.

Question 18

What is idealism?

Answer 18

• A philosophical branch that there is no external reality.
• Physical objects exist only because they are perceived.
• Reality is ideas, thoughts, minds rather than material forces.

Question 19

What is solipsism?

Answer 19

The idea that the only thing we are certain about is the existence of the mind. Anything outside one’s own mind (i.e. external world, other minds) is unsure.

Question 20

What is functionalism?

Answer 20

Functionalism is a philosophical branch that believes that the mental state is defined by its function, not by its internal structure.

Question 21

What is physicalism?

Answer 21

Physicalism is a philosophical branch that believes that there exist no non-physical things. Mental states are determined by the physical world.