The debate between dualism and materialism has been there for a very long time. Both sides have some cogent arguments, this is why we can not say which side is right and which side is wrong. Personally, if I must choose one of them, I would say materialism is closer to be the correct one.
Descartes claims that there are two different types of entities in the universe, which are the “extended things” and the “thinking things”(Descartes, 13-14). In other words, the body and the mind are separated. One of the most famous sentence of Descartes :“I think therefore I exist.” shows that if I doubt my existence, I must exist, or I would not be wonder (15). For the bodies, he claims that with the help of the mind, the bodies will be known indirectly. (16) Moreover, he affirms that “bodies and brains could no more be conscious than tables or chairs or houses, or any other hunk
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Basically, the idea of materialism is that there is only one sort of substance in the universe, the “extended matter”. According to J.J.C. Smart, he states that “everything should be explicable in terms of physic”, but a “sensation” is more complicated. He still finds an explication which says a sensation is simply a brain process, nothing more than that (Smart, 3). Actually, Smart does not say dualism is wrong, what he thinks is that the dualists believe in “ghost stuff”, and the materialists believe in “physical stuff”. (6) The idea of Occam’s Razor is that the simple one will most likely to be the right one because there is less chance to be wrong. Therefore, materialism will be the right one because it is much simpler than dualism. (8) I find the statement of Smart is reasonable even if it is a little insulting by saying that we are just some chemicals, but it makes sense because if both theories are right, the “physical stuff” seems to be easier to understand and more