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Dualism: What Is It Like To Be A Bat, By Thomas Nagel

725 Words3 Pages

A way to argue that the mind is just the brain would be to claim that the mind and brain are connected in some way. Injury or harm to the brain can affect cognitive abilities and personality. Changes in brain chemistry can do the same as well. The reason our minds do not seem physical to us is because we know so little of the processes inside our brains. Materialism is the view that existence is explainable only in material or physical terms, with no regard for or of the spirit and consciousness. This would obviously rely on the claim that our mind is our brain or that the brain is our mind. The view known as Dualism argues against this belief. Dualism is the view that there are two types of reality that exist; material (physical) and immaterial …show more content…

Mostly because, it has been difficult to define and understand. What Is It Like To Be A Bat is a critique of the reductionist theories regarding the mind. Thomas Nagel argues that consciousness has a subjective aspect and that understanding other mental states can be difficult or impossible for those who are unable to experience such mental states. I personally agree with Nagel on his stance as well as his refute to reductionism. Reductionism is the philosophical view that a complex system is just the composition of its parts. I feel such a view is outdated and doesn't accurately grasp the magnitude of such a discussion regarding something as complex as consciousness. As already stated regarding science and its attempt to discern whether or not the mind and the brain are the same or different, we have been unsuccessful at explaining and understanding consciousness, especially when attempted through a physical sense. Even if we changed how we look and how we acted, like a bat for example, we would still not change the fundamental structure of being human, and in turn would still not know how it truly is to be a bat. Even if one could actually change into a bat, you would not know what it was like until that actually happened. For Nagel, the objective perspective is invalid, because humans are limited to just subjective experience. He wants us to form an 'objective phenomenology' that does not rely solely on feeling or imagination. Rather, be capable of describing the subjective character of experience in such a way so that it could be understood by beings who cannot have such

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This quote that I will be analyzing and explaining why it is the key quote that represents the thesis of Nagel. Nagel’s main goal is to define consciousness and refute any reductive approach to consciousness. Nagel claims that consciousness is the reason why the mind-body problem is so difficult. Consciously being aware and cognizant is unexplainable because it is hard to reduce down to a single entity. The chosen quote is essentially saying that all organisms have conscious states and in order to truly be that organism or understand, you must understand their consciousness while still maintaining your own consciousness.

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Same as humans, we also don’t need a mind. We are just physical things. Churchland also says that there is no way to prove that there is a mind/ soul. Science can’t prove it. We can think of our mind as a software and you’re brain as a hardware.

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And lastly, I will argue that Nagel’s two-pronged conclusion is most likely “at worst unprovable.” First we need to define what is psychophysical reductionism

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Brain controls all of the organs in our body and what makes human different from animals is that we have the ability to think and have our own thoughts. Everything is possible in reality and what makes it possible is our knowledge. Richard Wright, who explains the definition of the word cognitive the best by using his memoir the ‘Black Boy’. In his memoir Richard explains his struggles of life as a child, teen and adult. But eventually succeed using his knowledge and experience.

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I think that the essence of the mind is thought, while body is an extension, thus they are two separate essences that can be apart and still live on. My thoughts also breach into the world of robots, of which there are many in the film. Sonny, who is seen as a self-aware robot with feelings and dreams can be seen as a human to many, however this cannot be true, as something might seem human, but it is not. This is because a machine may be able to do some things that we can, but humans can do a greater variety of things. Machines lack soul, which is needed in order to be truly human, also I believe that another way to distinguish between machines and humans is to see how they react to unknown situations, as robots can be programmed to react to certain situations, however, humans can think on the spot and do not need to be

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Grave robbing is like stealing candy from a baby. Grave robbing also known as body snatching was a big in London during the 1800s. Grave robbing was started by students looking to expand their knowledge of anatomy. Grave robbing further careers, both criminally and professionally. Grave robbing became a big social and political issue.

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They have said all of our views we have about our minds are wrong and false. The opposing philosophers that think otherwise made a new view called “Eliminative materialism”. It claims that understandings of the human mind are not accurate at all or in other words, it is known for a false view. For the people who believe in eliminative materialism, beliefs, desires and intentions are not accurate to them (Velazquez, 94). Some of the critics of eliminative materialism are not all favorable, this view relies on the mental states that do not

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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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Nagel contributes to the mind-body dualism by posing challenges to faulty reductive theories by discussing the importance of the consideration of subjectivity. He is entitled to the assumptions he makes because reductionism overlooks the gap between the subjective and the objective. Further exploring such gap can signify the creation of new methods that invoke the objective as well as the subjective. As of now the call for innovative approaches to understand the consciousness are essential to better understand our species and others

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In “What is is like to be a bat?”, Thomas Nagel claims that in humanity 's attempts to reduce the mind into more basic forms, we have removed an essential part of the mind -- what it’s like to hold the point of view of another (393). Nagel points out that experiencing an event in one’s own way is a key condition to the determination of mental states (392). Moreover, until there exists a form of examining the mind that includes the subjective, Nagel believes we have no objective or universal form of understanding the mind (392-393). This would make it apparent that if someone wished to examine the essence of mental states in order to objectify them, he or she should consider the subjective. However, many of the current reductionist models strive

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Because of this, it is impossible to objectively comprehend what it is like to be another being; no matter how much detail we put into the description, conscious beings are far too complex for us to fully understand each other's experience, and it is impossible for us to give an all-encompassing description of our own experience. Whereas objectivity on the other hand, requires an unbiased, non-subjective state of perception. For Nagel, the objective perspective is not feasible, because humans are limited to subjective

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Let's start with the brain, which is divided into two basic parts - emotional (instinctive, intuitive) and cognitive (conscious, rational). The first one which we "share" with all the mammals, and in some parts with the reptiles, is responsible for the survival and is closely attached to the body. The second one is aimed towards the outside world and it is called the "new brain" or "neocortex". It has evolved for millions of years and embraces the first one. It is also called “limbic brain”.

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Various philosophers and scientists have inquired about the mind and body issue for a long time. The mind-body philosophies try to explain the way a person’s mental state and processes are linked to the physical state. The core of the mind and body is that individuals have a biased experience of an inner life that appears detached from the physical world. Although they are separated, they need to work together in some way. Individuals may appear to have physical properties and mental properties.

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Firstly, it is like-minded with knowledge of humans and brains. Secondly, it accounts for the close relation we think there is between mind and body. When we talk about how a person thinks or believes, we are talking about how a human behaves. Thirdly, it is a monistic theory removing mental substance, which makes it an acceptable theory for materialists.

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Materialism or Reductive Physicalism (developed from Materialism) states that there is no differentiation between mind and matter because only what is material exists and as a result the mind is the formation of consciousness. Mental faculties occur because of the physical, for Materialists the brains purpose is to create consciousness. Phenomenalism states that physical objects are perceivable because of our mental faculties. The mind creates what we perceive as physical and what is physical is merely a mental construct therefore deducing that it is the mind that truly exists (McLeod, 2007). A study on hemiplegic victims demonstrated that when stimulated the mind can trick the body into believing a missing limb is still there contrary to the physical evidence, demonstrating that the “reorganized cortex is capable of processing sensory inputs so that they result in tactile perception” (Pons,

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