Explain The Arguments Against Substance Dualism

Substance dualism-you and your body are different entities, the substance that makes up you is separate and not reliant on the physical body. An argument against substance dualism is that if the mind stuff and the physical stuff are so different, how can they communicate? If they are truly separate and different it must be impossible for them to communicate. Property dualism is the view that the mind-brain is the only relevant substance. “the brain has a set of properties possessed by no other kind of physical object. It is these special properties that are nonphysical…” (Churchland 11). The special properties referred to are those associated with consciousness. Epiphenomenalism is the view that mental phenomena are caused by physical affects

This view leads us to understand that our actions do not come from the mind. A problem with this view could be that as an individual, you have experienced your own thoughts and desires that seem to affect my actions, so it cannot be true that the mind does not affect the body. An epiphenomenalist might answer this by saying that it is true that you might have these desires/thoughts but they are “impotent epiphenomena”, while the person might have them, they are unable to affect anything. Type-type identity theory is the “…mental states are physical states of the brain” (Churchland 26). Every thought or mental state is tied to a physical one. A problem with type-type identity theory is that if our mental states and physical states are so closely intertwined, how can anyone separate the two. Without a separation, someone might not be able to understand if their pain was physical or mental, and lead to errors when attempting to correct this pain. The next type is Behaviorism, which uses an operational definition to understand how a person’s mind and body function. One of the problem associated with Behaviorism is that it denies the reflexive or inner part of our