PHI 2010 Introduction to Philosophy Summer B 2012 Exam 1 and 2 Review From the first day What is the difference between inductive and deductive arguments Inductive the conclusion is probable given the premises but not certain It has much to do with the predictions of the future statistical arguments cause effect effect cause and analytical reasoning o Example Sun rose yesterday and day before and day before that etc all separate premises Sun will rise tomorrow Although probable it is not always certain The world can end today and the sun when a conclusion is said to follow with 100 certainty from the premises If premises will never come up again Deductive are true then conclusion has to be true o If p then q p Therefore q yes o If p then q p Therefore q no Example All smurfs are blue Smurfette is a smurf Therefore Smurfette is blue Example if it is raining I ll carry an umbrella It isn t raining Therefore I m not carrying an umbrella This is not necessarily true because you could still be carrying an umbrella just in case or to shield the sun away or even because it might rain later and it isn t raining at the moment The Mind Body Problem 1 What is the mind body problem that The question is really asking Am I a purely physical being or is there more to me than just The problem is figuring out how our mental states psychological emotions feelings beliefs understanding etc interact with our physical state body o Example sadness How does our body know when to cry when we are sad We need to find a way to explain how they act together However this answer is not measureable and it is hard to find Do I have an immaterial mind A soul What kind of thing is my body Most people will say the physical part of you What kind of thing is my mind This answer will differ brain vs mind Some say the mind is material others say it is immaterial Mental does not mean non physical Is it possible to swap minds separation of mind and body Words like mind soul spirit consciousness etc are used interchangeably There are a few major theories on the resolution of the problem Dualism is the theory that the mind and body are two distinct substances 2 and monism is the theory that they are in reality just one substance Monist materialists also called physicalists take the view that they are both matter and monist idealists take the view that they are both in the mind Neutral monists take the view that both are reducible to a third neutral substance The problem was identified by Ren Descartes in the sense known by the modern Western world Plato argued that as the body is from the material world the soul is from the world of ideas and is thus immortal He believed the soul was temporarily united with the body and would only be separated at death when it would return to the world of Forms Since the soul does not exist in time and space as the body does it can access universal truths For Plato ideas or Forms are the true reality and are experienced by the soul The body is for Plato empty in that it can not access the abstract reality of the world it can only experience shadows This is determined by Plato s essentially rationalistic epistemology 2 What is the difference between substance monism and substance dualism a Substance monism They believe that either everything is material physical or everything is immaterial Substance monism is the view that the universe contains only one kind of entity According to substance monists the universe is not divided into mental and physical realms but rather everything is made of one kind of stuff There is a form of monism according to which everything is mental idealism According to idealism what appear to be physical objects are in fact nothing more than mental constructs ideas Most substance monists however hold that the universe contains only physical or material entities This position is known either as physicalism or materialism The main challenge for materialists is that of offering a plausible account of mind in purely physical terms There are several different theories that try to do this including behaviourism functionalism and mind brain identity theory Behaviourism o Behaviourism attempts to explain mental states in terms of behaviour It comes in several varieties Hard behaviourism holds that mental states are identical with certain behaviour soft behaviourism holds that mental states are to be understood in terms of behavioural dispositions Though behaviourism is important historically neither of its forms is well regarded by contemporary philosophers Functionalism o More plausible than behaviourism is functionalism Functionalism holds that mental states are defined by their functional role by the effect that they have on us Any state that performs the appropriate functional role counts as the mental state Among other things this view opens the door to the possibility of creating artificial intelligence Mind Brain Identity Theory o Mind brain identity theory holds that the mind and the brain are one and the same thing To be in a particular mental state is nothing more than to be in a particular brain state The mind is the brain They believe that we as humans have an immaterial mind and a material physical body After death of the body the mind can continue living without it Descartes Christians Muslims Islamic people Substance dualism is the view that the universe contains two fundamental types of entity mental and physical Those who view themselves as immaterial minds housed in physical bodies are thus substance dualists This view is often called Cartesian dualism after Descartes the philosopher best known for advocating it It seen by some as old fashioned and naive and is often associated with religious world views Typically it involves the following components The Mental is Private o Dualism holds that each of us has an immaterial mind or soul that exists in a non physical realm The physical world is in principle equally observable to all of us but the mental is not One of the most striking characteristics of dualism is therefore that the mental is private that though each of us has access to our own mind through introspection no one can directly observe anyone else s mind This position contrasts with that of substance monism according to which minds are part of the physical public world and so could in principle be equally accessible to everyone b Substance dualism Privileged Access o Information that reaches us through our senses is notoriously fallible though