Type-Type Identity Theory In Sensations And Brain Processes

The Type-type Identity theory says that certain types of mental states are identical with certain types of brain states. For example, according to this theory all types of happy mental states would be identical with certain types of brain states. In order to understand what the Type-type Identity theory implies, we also need to look into what it does not imply. Both Place and Smart came up with the thesis that “sensations are brain processes” and used the analogy with the statement “lightening is electrical discharge” to further explain it. In “Sensations and Brain Processes”, Smart says that the word “is” has been used “in the sense of strict identity”, just like saying “7 is identical with the smallest prime number greater than 5” (Smart 145). So just like both

This means that the concept of pain is not the same as the concept of being in a certain brain state. Smart also says that statements about sensations cannot necessarily be translated into statements about brain processes, i.e. the two phrases cannot be used inter-changeably because the logic of sensation and brain process is different just like the logic of temperature is different from the logic of mean molecular kinetic energy. But this doesn’t prevent the statements “lightening is electrical discharge”, “temperature is mean molecular kinetic energy” and “sensations are brain processes” from being true. This means that sensations and brain processes are just two different ways to describe the same phenomena and are strictly identical. Here, it is important to explain the term “strictly identical” and distinguish between the concepts of ‘type’ and ‘token’. Consider the following example. Suppose I am asked how many letters are there in the space