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Explain The Arguments Against Substance Dualism

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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 …show more content…

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

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The concept that the id, ego, and superego control

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In today’s society, people believe in many superstition. But in order to fully understand superstitions one must learn the roots of superstition and where it came from. The roots of superstition come from the Elizabethan era in Britain. We as people have a tendency to overlook how things came about. We also must learn in steps, or a process what made superstition such a huge component of how people lived in the Elizabethan era.

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A brief explanation of the Freudian “ID” is as

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Substance dualism is the false theory that persons and bodies are distinct from each other. More definitively, according to the proponents of substance dualism: the person is you – a conscience, and the body is also you, but the body itself is also an entirely separate entity from your conscience. But why is this theory wrong? Substance dualism is false because if I am a nonphysical entity, then I have no spatial location; if I have no spatial location, then how can I exert force upon the world around me? The breakdown of the argument that disproves the theory of substance dualism is as follows:

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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.

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The argument of whether or not a human has a soul has been argued throughout centuries. Derek Parfit discusses two separate theories of personal identity, Ego Theory and Bundle Theory. The argument of which present a more accurate account of personhood is very hard to determine. The Ego Theory has some flaws such the soul is separate from the body and is a immaterialist object within us. Bundle Theory is reinforced and proven by the split-brain case, however it can lead to the argument that there is no self.

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Rene Descartes’ argument for substance dualism (the theory that the mind and body are two separate substances) and an immaterial mind is as follows. It is conceivable for me to be a mind without a body, but not vice versa, so the mind must be independent of the body. Logically this argument is valid such as that if it is possible for a mind to be without a body then the mind must be independent. The problem with this argument is on the premise that it is conceivable to be a mind without a body. Theodore Schick criticized this argument well by asking if is truly possible to be a mind without a body.

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A substance is an entity that exists that is not a property, but that has properties. Substance dualism is the view that there are two substances that make up the mind, which are physical and immaterial: “Specifically, the dualist argues that psychological substances, states acts, processes, and the like, are nonphysical or mental things, ontologically different from non-psychological material beings. In other words, while materialists are ontological monists, believing that there is only kind of being, dualists maintain that there are two fundamentally different kinds of being, material and mental” (Madden, 2013, p. 19). It can be inferred from this quote that materialism is then the belief that there is only one substance and that substance is material. Now that there is a foundation for the theories, the psycho-physical dependence argument against substance dualism states that psychological states are dependent on the brain.

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To begin with, Dualism is the philosophical doctrine, first introduced by Rene Descartes, that the Mind and Body are two distinct separate entities. Rene Descartes believed that the Mind and Body were separate entities that were not only independent from one another, but that both were composed of dissimilar elements. Descartes explains that the body, and all its physiological attributes, are composed of “Physical” matter, and as such, dwells in the material realm and abides the laws of Physics or the laws of nature. Conversely, the Mind and all its attributes, thoughts, emotions and qualia, are composed of “Spiritual” matter, and as such, dwells in the immaterial realm and does not abide to the laws of physics or nature.

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In this essay I will be comparing the identity theory to the behaviorist’s theory. Both theories are similar in the sense that they are of the monists (physicalism) view but they do vary in many other ways that I will point out in the duration of my essay. I do believe that the behaviorist theory is the better argument for reasons I will outline in this essay. The identity theory The identity theory refers to the understanding that the mind and the brain are identical.

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The Id, Ego and Superego make complete sense to any person who might be interests in learning about the Psyche. Freud’s use of the psychoanalytic theory is relevant when explaining my current behaviour in regards to my past experiences that have occurred throughout my lifetime. Freud’s theory does apply to my own life as he made his theory a way to help understand and focus on the behavioural problems of the human being, and to resolve them in a way that forces me to accept my own destructive

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Substance dualism is a particular philosophy which Descartes takes a stance on. Descartes argues that two substances (mind and body) exist separately and it is evident from great distinction between the two. Spinoza agrees mind and body are different, but not to the extent that they are two separate substances (Def. 3). He explains that if mind and body were two existing substances, they would be so different that they could not interact (Prop.2). This interaction of thought to body or vise versa couldn 't exist since no common ground resides.

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Freud argues that the unconscious molds the personality as it accommodates the id, the ego, and superego (Freud, 1962). Essentially, the id is primitive and is widely believed to already exist at the time of birth. It acts on the pleasure principle, which thrives on hedonism and abstains from pain. However, the id is detached from reality so it can only obtain gratification indirectly such as through reflex actions and mental images (Morris & Maisto, 2013).

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The one of common categories enlighted upon for these purposes are substance and property, referring one substance dualism and other property dualism. There is, however, an important third category, called as predicate dualism. Predicate Dualism: Predicate dualism is about the theory that psychological predicates are: (a) Important for a complete identification of the real world, and (b) are not defined further to physicalistic predicates. The mental predicate to be defined in sub categories, there would be some laws which connect different psychological states to physical states carried no information will not bring any information of mental predicate whenever used which could be defined in presence of it.

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