Philosophy 2400F/G Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Mental Property, Ceteris Paribus, Posterior Analytics
3 Feb 2021
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The case for physicalism: a thought-experiment (adapted from van inwagen, 2015). If the duck in a is quacking, then you will presumably also get a quacking duck in b. It does, however, help you figure out whether you"re a physicalist! B, or perhaps a pvs patient, with a heartbeat etc; but no mental life), then you"re definitely not a physicalist (van inwagen, 2015): dualists such as descartes would likely choose option b. The case for physicalism (arguments: physicalists sometimes rely on arguments. Simplicity: hes saying if 3 explanations work, but one is the simpler explanation (fewer entities) then that is the preferred explanation, ex. No media: for jjc smart and others, physicalism is clearly the simpler theory in the philosophy of mind, because it postulates just one type of thing (viz. , the physical) when explaining the mind. Dualists, in contrast, appeal to two kinds of things (physical and non-physical).
