PHIL 1301 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Physical Law, Pineal Gland, Causal Closure
26 Jan 2017
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Meditation vi: concerning the existence of material things, and the real distinction between the mind and the body. The arguments for the distinction of mind and body: the argument from knowledge, the argument from extension, the conceivability argument. The mind and body are different things (they do not share all the same properties: the human body is a material thing. Material thing: extended in space and subject to physical laws: the human mind is a immaterial thing. Problem: this set of propositions jointly entails a contradiction. {1, 2, and 4 jointly entail: mind and body do not interact. To solve this problem you must reject one of the original 4 propositions. The body causally influences the mind e. x. feeling of pain, drinking coffee. Causal closure of the physical: every physical event has a physical cause. For all physical events, if there is an event (e1), such that (e1) causes a physical event (e2), then (e1) is a physical event.
