PHI 101 Chapter Notes - Chapter 19: Mental Property, Aboutness, Pineal Gland
13 Jan 2017
School
Department
Course
Professor
Chapter 19: Dualism and the Mind/Body Problem
1. What is the Mind/Body Problem?
a. Asks what is the relationship between the mental and the physical
i. Mind contains various beliefs, desires, sensations, and emotions
ii. The brain is a physical thing, a structured piece of tissue containing an
intricate web of neurons
iii. Are your mind and brain the same thing?
2. Descartes’ Dualism
a. The idea that there are two kinds of things in the world: physical and mental
objects
i. Brains and the bodies in which they are found are physical things
ii. The mind is a nonphysical thing
1. Distinct from both the whole body and the body’s physical parts
3. The Mind/Brain Identity Theory
a. Alternative to dualism
b. Makes a claim about objects and the properties those objects possess
i. Your mind and brain are one and the same object
ii. The mental properties you have are physical properties (pain is a physical
event)
c. Mental and physical terminology describe the same items in the world
4. Immortality of the soul
a. If you believe that the soul is immortal even though the body disintegrates at
death, you may be attracted by dualism
5. Leibniz’s Law
a. If m and b are identical, then they must have all the same properties
b. If you can find even one property that m has and b lacks, then you would have
shown that m and b are distinct entities
6. Descartes’ First Argument fro Dualism
a. You can’t doubt that you have a mind
i. If you try to doubt that you have a mind, you will find youself entertaining
the thougt, and so you must grant that you have a mind aftere all
b. If is possible to doubt that you have a body
i. You can entertain the thought that you are a disembodied spirit
c. So, the mind has a property that the body does not: you can doubt the existence of
the body byt not the mind
i. Mind has indubitable existence
7. An Analogy
a. Indubitable existence is not a genuine property at all
b. Analogy
i. Lois Lane wants to marry Superman. She doesn’t realize that Superman
and Clark are the same person. If you ask Lois if she wants to marry Clark
Kent, she would say no. Does that mean that Clark and Superman are not
the same person?
ii. However, the fact that Lois desires the proposition that she marries
Superman to be true and the proposition that she marries Clark Kent to be
false does not show the Superman and Clark have different properties.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
