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Newall: Philosophy of Mind

Newall: Philosophy of Mind. Mind and body are the same (monism) Physicalism : physical objects or processes (e.g., neural firings) are “tokens” (examples) of “types” of things (minds or mental events) Reductive physicalism : minds/mental events are reducible to physical objects/events

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Newall: Philosophy of Mind

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  1. Newall: Philosophy of Mind • Mind and body are the same (monism) • Physicalism: physical objects or processes (e.g., neural firings) are “tokens” (examples) of “types” of things (minds or mental events) • Reductive physicalism: minds/mental events are reducible to physical objects/events • Non-reductive physicalism: minds/mental events “supervene on” physical objects and events: that is, they depend on, but are not reducible to, physical objects and processes

  2. More Monistic Theories of Mind • Mind-Brain (Identity) Theory: mental states are simply brain states • Objection: brain states and introspective qualia (experiences) have different characteristics • Functionalism:mental states are associations or linkages of sensory stimuli and behaviors • Eliminative Materialism: we should replace terms like “thought” with materialist expressions • Idealism: physical objects/processes are really only mental events or objects of mind

  3. Dualistic Theories of Mind • Predicate Dualism: the mental and physical are said to be different kinds of things • Property Dualism: the mental and physical are different characteristics of things • Substance Dualism: the mental and physical are simply different kinds of real things • The major problem with dualism (viz., interaction) concerns how the physical and mental can affect or relate to one another

  4. Attempted Solutions to the Challenge of Dualistic Interactionism Epiphenomenalism: bodies can influence minds, but minds cannot influence bodies Objections: why can’t minds influence bodies? Why have the mental at all? Occasionalism: God’s intervention accounts for the interaction N. Malebranche • Parallelism: apparent interaction is due to a pre-established harmony between the physical and mental G. W. Leibniz

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