Philosophy Week 4 Notes Mind Metaphysics Epistemology Metaphysics First principles general nature of things Epistemology Theory of Knowledge what can be known How can knowledge be justified Descartes Switch from Metaphysics as first philosophy to epistemology as first philosophy To establish any lasting knowledge I must begin from the foundations of knowledge and establish indubitable first principle But first I must purge all of my false beliefs can do so by applying the method of doubt to all of my beliefs at once Descartes First Meditation Skepticism Unreliable i ii Mental Health iii iv v Doubt that any perceptions and thoughts are knowledge Dreaming Evil Demon Descartes Second Meditation i ii iii COGITO pages 190 191 Perhaps nothing is certain to be convinced of this proof that something is certain It exists Even if an evil demon is deceiving me I must exist to be deceived But who am I let me subtract everything from my ordinary conception of myself that can be put into doubt Rationality action moving and body can be called into doubt Still I cannot doubt my power of thought iv v I am a thinking thing I think therefore I am cogito ergo sum Mind Body Dualism Descartes Second Meditation Cogito Ergo Sum Body Uncertain moved extended in space Mind Certain causes movement not extended in space doubts understands affirms denies is willing and also imagines page 192 Have imagination Mind Body Dualism Mind and body are two distinct substances Mind Body Problem Body Mind Ryle Mind Body Problem page 149 Are you identical with your body with your mind or some combination of the two If you are a combination how are the mind and body connected as a form of one person the mind connects to the body through the pineal gland Descartes Is the mind body problem a real problem Official Doctrine Page 149 Human beings have both a mind and body Body Public entity that exists in space and time is composed of matter subject to physical laws and is connected to other bodies in other parts of space Mind Private entity that exists in time only is composed of consciousness and to which the person has privilege access Duality raised questions about the connection between mind and matter Official Doctrine aka The dogma of the Ghost in the Machine page 151 Category Mistake E g But where is the university pages 151 152 My destructive purpose is to show that a family of radical categories mistakes is the source of the idea of mind body dualism The representation of a person as a ghost mysteriously ensconced in a machine derives from this argument page 153 Montero We are not ready to talk about the mind body problem until we address the body problem Body Problem Just what does it mean to be physical page 184 Questions What is nonphysical Ghosts Neutrinos How could we tell that a mental substance was nonphysical What about dark matter If we let physics define it do we use current physics or future final physics Trivial a completed physics amounts to a physics that explains everything So if mentality is a feature of the world completed physics on this definition will explain it to page 187 Mind Body Problem Minds and bodies seem like two very different kinds of things What am I mind body or both Two general approaches to the mind body problem If minds and bodies are two different kinds of things then how do they interact Materialism Physicalism Like bodies minds are physical therefore I am a physical Dualism Minds nonphysical and bodies physical are different substances therefore my mind and body are distinct being Churchland Mind body problem about the essential nature conscious intelligence page 157 Different versions of dualism Dualism holds that mind is nonphysical and is thus beyond the scope of science Dualism is a minority view is contemporary philosophy and science Dualism is a majority view in the public at large world s popular religions and was a dominant theory in Western History Substance Dualism Descartes kinds of dualism Cartesian Dualism Mind is a distinct nonphysical thing Physical Extended in space mechanical subject to the laws of physics Reasons to agree with Cartesian Dualism Page 158 Interaction How does mind interact with body Not extended in space There are physical things that are not extended in space so that can t be a defining feature of minds Property Dualism Minds are not different substances than bodies but have different properties Mind properties e g sensations and thinking Kinds of Property Dualism Epiphenomenalism Minds are experienced but do not have any casual effects The whistle from a steam engine The whistle blows when certain things happen in the engine but the whistle does not have any effects In this way minds are experienced but do not have any casual effects Interactionist Property Dualism Minds are different than bodies Minds happen in certain areas of the body e g brain Minds can interact with the body in certain ways e g cause movement make choices etc Emergence certain way Minds have properties that are emergent properties Emergent Properties Properties that do not appear until physical stuff is organized in E g The wetness of water Wetness is not a property of hydrogen or oxygen physical but if hydrogen and oxygen are organized in certain ways then the property of wetness emerges Arguments for Dualism Arguments from Religion Appealing to a more general theory In the case of religion the more general theory are the religious belief that often includes belief in a god Problems theories have 1 Theories based on religious doctrine don t have the king of credentials that scientific 2 What about other religions Other people hold different beliefs for the same reasons as you do but you don t believe them Arguments from Introspection Minds must be different from physical stuff because only I can access it and my access The problem is that introspection doesn t give access to true nature of things Minds have certain capacities not accountable by what physical stuff can do language reveals its true nature Argument from Irreducibility and math problems Problems 1 Calculators can now conduct mathematical reasoning far superior to human minds 2 Languages are very commonplace now computers Arguments against Dualism 1 Simplicity We should prefer simpler explanations and it s simpler to postulate one kind of substance physical instead of two physical or nonphysical e g mind 2 Explanatory Impotence Compared to what the sciences can tell us about the mind dualism does not offer