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Arguments Against Eliminative Materialism

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People often refer to behavior as a reflection of one’s mental state. Though this claim is widely supported, it is also disproven by people known as eliminative materialists. Eliminative Materialism is a doctrine which claims that there are no mental states. Many materialists believe that mental states are apart of folk theory that almost everyone in today’s society takes for granted. Personally, I strongly disagree with this claim due to the overwhelming amount of evidence against it. Folk psychology is a commonsense theory of the mind that explains people’s behavior in terms of mental states, such as belief and desire. This theory also assumes that we have beliefs and desires which affect our behavior. Eliminative materialists reject these assumptions because they believe that beliefs and desires cannot affect our behavior. The first flaw I find in this theory is that materialists believe in their rejection of folk psychology, but they do not believe in beliefs as a whole. Beliefs are defined as an acceptance that a statement is true, or that something exists. Chemotherapy, for example, is believed to be a revolutionary tool in the medical world, which helps slow and/or halt the reproduction of cancerous cells in the body. Those who believe in the use of chemotherapy, accept that it is true, and that its positive effects truly do exist. …show more content…

Folk psychology was originally intended to explain the waking actions of normal adults. They believe that it cannot explain certain phenomena, and it would be a strike against it if it was intended to explain them. Many materialists believe that mental states are just theoretical entities which hold no value in life. They also believe that people only believe in mental states because they provide the best explanation for certain

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