Assess The Difference Between The Mind Brain Identity Theory And Dualism

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Both the mind/brain identity theory and dualism share the assumption that the mind is a thing of a non-physical Cartesian substance which is separate from the living brain. Behaviourism challenges and rejects this presumption, in common with functionalism.

To state straightforwardly and simply, behaviourism maintains that statements about the mind and mental states are to be equivalent to statements that describe a person's actual and potential public behaviour. In this view, there is no more to a person's mental states than contain overt patterns of behaviour s/he exhibits or, in appropriate circumstances, is disposed to manifest.

Behaviourism has a number of strengths to its argument. One of these is the avoidance of the mind and body interaction.