Philosophy on Mind
Terms
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- Dualism?
- The view which holds that in addition to human body, a human being also has a non physical component. ie. mind, soul, spirit or consciousness.
- Physicalism
- -humans are purely physical things. -There is no such thing as a non-physical mind/soul.-The thing we call mind really is just a physical thing too.
- Cartesian/Substance Dualism
- Dualist theory that says we are composite creatures made up of two different substances. i. nonphysical nonspatially located mind ii. a physical spatially located body. Moreover, mind and body enjoy a 2-way causal interaction. Mind affects body, and body affects mind.
- Who is Moreland?
- Moreland is a Dualist, He argues for Dualism by arguing against PHYSICALISM. He thinks that if there is something that is true of the mind that is not true of the body(brain), then the mind will not be identical with the body. Mind and body will be two different sorts of things. If they are different, then PHYSICALISM is wrong.
- Moreland's 1st arguement
- Brain events are spatially located, but what goes on in the mind is not spatially located. Hence, mind and body cannot be the same thing.
- Moreland's 2nd argument
- Although a neuroscientist might have direct access to the physical workings of my brain, a neuroscientiest cannot have direct access to my mind. Only I have direct introspective access to the contents of my mind. Hence, mind and brain cannot be the same thing.
- Moreland's 3rd argument
- The mind bears the property of intentionality or "aboutness", but brain states do not. Hence, mind and brain cannot be the same thing.
- Moreland's 4th argument
- Brain events, at least in principle, can be described entirely within a physical theory, but the distinctive feature of the mind - that raw, subjective, first-person character of experience(qualia)-cannot be captured adequately within a physical theory. hence, mind and brain cannot be the same thing.
- Overall of Moreland's arguments
- since there are things that we can say about the min that we can't say about the brain, mind and brain can't be one and the same thing as Physicalism asserts. Hence, says Moreland, Physicalism is false and Dualism is the right conception of human beings.
- Problem 1 with substance dualism
- Substance dualism asserts that there is a 2-way causal relationship that obtains between mind and body; Body affects mind, and mind affects body. But how can the mind causally affect the body and vice versa, given that mind and body are 2 radically different substances with nothing in common? Can we even conceive of such a relationship? If you can't, then you've got some reason for thinking that Cartesian or substance Dualism is mistaken.
- Problem 2 with substance dualism
- Substance dualists claim that when the body dies, the non-physical mind can go on to function perfectly well without a brain. but this flies in the face of current brain research which shows that you've got to have a brain to perform cognitive tasks. So there's an intimate connection between mental process and brain processes.
- Problem 3 with substance dualism
- Ryle thinks that substance dualis, the "Officiaal Doctrine" is mistaken. Ryle thinks that the substance dualist is making a category mistake; Although it's tempting to endorse that Official Doctrine and say that the mind is a non-physical thing that is somehow over and above and distinct from the brain or body, we have no good reason for putting mind in a category separate from body. According to Ryle, mind just is a body. Mind just is a certain set of behaviours or dispositions to behave. To take "themind" and place it in the category of non-physical stuff is to make a category mistake.