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Arguments Against Dualism

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Philosophy of mind has a dilemma: On the one hand, much of reality is explainable with purely physical terms. This forms the foundation of modern science, one of the main pillars of the modern world. On the other hand, with human beings, there is least an appearance of a mental realm, because we seem to have features such as free will. This appearance is recognizable even to those who are committed to physicalism. The question for philosophers of mind is, if the mind is immaterial and invisible, then how can we know whether or not it exists?

Dualism’s answer is that human beings do have a mental component distinct from our physical bodies. It embraces the existence of free will and other mental aspects that seem to make humans unique from other creatures. To support dualism, Jaegwon Kim presents the following argument:

“Suppose I am identical with this body of mine.” (Jaegwon Kim, Philosophy of Mind, page 42). If that were the case, then I would be necessarily identical with my body, meaning that I am …show more content…

That statement is an assertion, which acts as a premise for the conclusion that I am not identical with my body. However, I think that a non-dualist would simply reject the premise as an unsupported assertion.

I find Kim’s argument convincing, though I also have to admit that I do have a bias towards dualism. To me, it seems clear that there is some part of human beings that is distinct from their body. For one thing, I think we make free choices, which, if true, certainly differentiates us from the rest of the purely physical universe. Given that framework, it makes sense that the social sciences can't make predictions like physical sciences can. The social sciences rely on correlation and statistics, not laws – because we have never discovered any "laws" in the social

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213 Words | 1 Pages

He further to response to Princess Elisabeth question by introducing to her what is called (Cartesian Dualism) he uses these to explain to her that the mind, soul and the body are not the same and can never be same, which came to conclude that your mind cannot be your body and your body cannot be your mind. He also explains

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308 Words | 2 Pages

In Lonely Souls: Causality and Substance Dualism, Jaegwon Kim argues againist Cartesian dualism which are the main argument points that Cartesian dualism cannot reasonably explain just how two things so all in all different as unextended souls and extended bodies can casually interact. Cartesian dualism is developt on properties can be divided into two which they are mental, such as wishing anything or being in pain while physical properties are being in certain weight, shape or mass. No intimate association between physical and mental properties condensed of identity; therefore, Jaegwon supports that whereever we find a mental property that is logically sufficient for a physical effect. Related to his argument topics Jaegwon reassess the

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690 Words | 3 Pages

I think the author was a dualist, because of the characters he created. If he was a monist he would have gone against his own beliefs of the mind body problem. Gestalt and Myfanwy both show how the mind is separate from the body. Gestalt is able to control five bodies with one mind and the conscious can jump from one body to the next. Gestalt’s mind is not a part of the body but connected to it in another way.

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607 Words | 3 Pages

In this paper I will explain Elizabeth of Bohemia’s main argument against Cartesian dualism. I will also explain why Churchland rejects Cartesian dualism and her arguments against it and what alternatives she has in mind. At the end I will explain why I think a Cartesian mind is not plausible. Descartes believed in Cartesian Dualism, which is saying that the mind and body are two different things. He says that the body can be divided into pieces but the mind/soul are indivisible.

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524 Words | 3 Pages

Gertler’s argument defends naturalistic dualism. Naturalistic dualism is the idea that the mental state is existentially separate from the physical state. Dualism’s opposing ideology is physicalism. Physicalism is the idea that the mental and physical state are one in the same. Through this she rejects the identity theory which claims that mental states are ultimately identical to states of the brain and/or central nervous system.

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395 Words | 2 Pages

Shirley Jackson's 'the lottery' demonstrates the dangers of traditions because the villagers' actions highlight the harmful consequences of following a tradition without understanding its purpose. The tradition of the village was to sacrifice someone from the village to be able to get good crops the next year. In danger of tradition there traditions were passed down but they where wrong they did it because they saw there mother do it. In the story 'The Lottery' the small village was a village with a very weird tradition.

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1919 Words | 8 Pages

Conclusion: The mind is substantively different from the body and indeed matter in general. Because in this conception the mind is substantively distinct from the body it becomes plausible for us to doubt the intuitive connection between mind and body. Indeed there are many aspects of the external world that do not appear to have minds and yet appear none the less real in spite of this for example mountains, sticks or lamps, given this we can begin to rationalize that perhaps minds can exist without bodies, and we only lack the capacity to perceive them.

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776 Words | 4 Pages

Being that the mind is physical, there must be some aspects of consciousness that can be reduced. The reducible qualities of consciousness include the functional aspects of the brain—behavior, information processing, reaction to stimuli, etc. On the other hand, there is the subjective experience that arises from these physical processes. Can the subjective part of consciousness be explained by physical processes? I do not think that is possible.

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1052 Words | 5 Pages

A great number of arguments for dualism begin from a theory about a cognitive gap between physical truths about consciousness, and formulate an ontological gap between physical processes and consciousness. These type of arguments mainly include the conceivability argument, the knowledge argument, the explanatory-gap argument, and the property dualism argument. Such arguments are

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1104 Words | 5 Pages

In his philosophical thesis, of the ‘Mind-Body dualism’ Rene Descartes argues that the mind and the body are really distinct, one of the most deepest and long lasting legacies. Perhaps the strongest argument that Descartes gives for his claim is that the non extended thinking thing like the Mind cannot exist without the extended non thinking thing like the Body. Since they both are substances, and are completely different from each other. This paper will present his thesis in detail and also how his claim is critiqued by two of his successors concluding with a personal stand.

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1104 Words | 5 Pages

They say that mental processes are the same thing as brain processes. This gives us a better explanatory role with causation regarding mental states. According to the identity theory, the “Mind” and the “Brain” refer to one object (the physical brain). (Anthony Oyowe, personal

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703 Words | 3 Pages

This paper will critically examine the Cartesian dualist position and the notion that it can offer a plausible account of the mind and body. Proposed criticisms deal with both the logical and empirical conceivability of dualist assertions, their incompatibility with physical truths, and the reducibility of the position to absurdity. Cartesian Dualism, or substance dualism, is a metaphysical position which maintains that the mind and body consist in two separate and ontologically distinct substances. On this view, the mind is understood to be an essentially thinking substance with no spatial extension; whereas the body is a physical, non-thinking substance extended in space. Though they share no common properties, substance dualists maintain

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1028 Words | 5 Pages

I think duality of man is as plain as having two opposing mindsets. For example duality of man

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1009 Words | 5 Pages

Because common thinking tells us that there are physical bodies, and because there is intellectual

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1225 Words | 5 Pages

An issue in theoretical basis on what should prevail or which is supreme between International Law or Municipal Law (national law) is usually presented as a competition between monism and dualist. But in modern approach there is now the theory of coordination or is also called Harmonization theory that rejects the presumption of the other two theoretical concept, monism and dualism. The monist view asserts the international law’s supremacy over the municipal law even in matters within the internal or domestic jurisdiction of a state. While it is true that the international law defines the legal existence of states as well of the validity of its national legal order, the dualist asserts the international law is an existing system that is completely separated from municipal or national law. That dictates the

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