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Chapter 2
The Mind-Body Problem
McGraw-Hill
© 2013 McGraw-Hill Companies. All Rights Reserved.
The Mind-Body Problem
 How is it possible for the mind to affect
the body given that the mind seems nonphysical?
 What is it to have a mind?
 Can non-living things like robots or
computers have minds?
2.1-2
Bodies and Minds
 What goes on in our bodies can be
explained in physical terms, as the result
of various electrochemical or
biomechanical interactions.
 But what about what goes on in our
minds? Can our thoughts be explained
physically?
2.1-3
Thought Experiment: Descartes'
Mechanical Moron
 Can we construct a
machine that thinks?
 Descartes claims
that no machine
would be able to use
language or solve
problems like we do.
 Do you agree? Why
or why not?
2.1-4
Thought Experiment: Leibniz’s
Mental Mill
 Suppose that we
created a machine that
thinks, and suppose
further that we were
able to walk around
inside the machine.
 Leibniz claims that
explaining the working
of the parts of the
machine would not
explain its thinking.
2.1-5
Thought Probe: Walking
Around Inside the Brain
 Suppose you were
able to walk around
inside a brain, like
the crew from the
movie Fantastic
Voyage.
 Would you observe
thinking?
2.1-6
Thought Probe:
Artificial Intelligence
 If further research into artificial
intelligence may result in the extinction
of the human race, should it be allowed
to continue?
 Should we try to ban it? How?
 What if one nation banned it and others
didn’t?
2.1-7
Theories of Reality
 Idealism: the doctrine that minds and
their contents are all that exists.
 Materialism: the doctrine that material
objects are all that exists.
 Dualism: the doctrine that reality
contains both mental and material
things.
2.1-8
Section 2.1
The Ghost in the
Machine
Mind as Soul
Cartesian Dualism
 Cartesian dualism
is the doctrine
that mental
states are states
of an immaterial
substance that
interacts with the
body.
2.1-10
Descartes’s Doubt
 We know something only if
it’s certain.
 Most of what we think we
know is based on sense
experience.
 But we can’t be certain of
anything we’ve learned
through sense experience.
2.1-11
Thought Experiment: Descartes’s
Dream Argument
 “How often has it happened
to me that in the night I
dreamt that I found myself
in this particular
place…while in reality I was
lying undressed in bed.”
 Can you be certain that
you’re not dreaming right
now? If so, how?
2.1-12
Thought Experiment:
Descartes’s Evil Demon
 “How do I know that [an evil
demon] has not brought it to
pass that there is no earth, no
heaven, no extended body, no
magnitude, no place, and that
nevertheless they seem to me
to exist just exactly as I now
see them?”
 Can you be certain that there
is no such demon?
2.1-13
Thought Probe:
Living in the Matrix
 Can you be sure that you’re not living in
a computer simulation such as that
portrayed in the movie, The Matrix?
 If so, how?
 If not, does that mean that you can’t
have knowledge of the external world?
2.1-14
“I think, therefore I am.”
 Descartes cannot doubt that
he is thinking, for doubting is
a type of thinking. To doubt
is to think.
 And Descartes can’t doubt
anything unless he exists.
 So Descartes claims that he
can be absolutely certain of
one thing, namely, “I think,
therefore I am.”
2.1-15
The Conceivability Argument
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
It’s conceivable for me to exist without
having a body.
Whatever is conceivable is possible.
Therefore, it’s possible for me to exist and
not have a body.
If it’s possible for me to exist without having
a body, then having a body is not essential
to me.
Therefore, having a body is not essential to
me.
2.1-16
The Conceivability Argument
It’s inconceivable for me to exist without
having a mind.
7. Whatever is inconceivable is impossible.
8. Therefore, it’s impossible for me to exist and
not have a mind.
9. If it’s impossible for me to exist without
having a mind, then having a mind is
essential to me.
10. Therefore, having a mind is essential to me.
6.
2.1-17
Cartesian Dualism
 Descartes has proven that he is a thing
that thinks.
 But physical things, he claims, cannot
think.
 So, he concludes, he (his mind) is a nonphysical thing.
2.1-18
Thought Probe:
Descartes and Vivisection
 Descartes believed that only
humans had souls because,
among other things, animals
can’t reason the way that we
do.
 Some followers of Descartes
took this to mean that animals
have no mental states at all,
not even pain.
 Does our mental superiority
give us the right to use animals
as we please? Why or why
not?
2.1-19
Thought Probe:
Heaven without Bodies
 Suppose that you have an
immaterial soul, and suppose
that it goes to heaven when
you die.
 Immaterial souls have no
physical properties; they can’t
be seen, touched, smelled, etc.
 How would you recognize your
loved one’s? How would you
communicate with them?
 Would going to a heaven full of
immaterial souls be something
to look forward to?
2.1-20
Indiscernibility of Identicals
 According to the the indiscernibility of
identicals, if two things are identical, then
they must both possess the same
properties.
 For example, if Mark Twain is identical to
Samuel Clemens, then whatever is true
of Mark Twain is true of Samuel
Clemens and vice-versa.
2.1-21
The Divisibility Argument
1. If minds are identical to bodies, then
whatever is true of minds is true of
bodies, and vice versa.
2. But minds are indivisible and bodies
are divisible.
3. Therefore, minds are not identical to
bodies.
2.1-22
The Problem of Interaction
 Descartes believes
that our minds
affect our bodies,
and vice versa.
 But how can a nonphysical object
affect a physical
one?
2.1-23
Parallelism
 One way to deal with the problem of
interaction is to say that the mind and
body only seem to interact with each
other.
 According to parallelism, mental
processes and physical processes run
parallel to each other but do not
interact.
2.1-24
Occasionalism and the
Pre-established Harmony
 Occasionalism is the parallelist theory of the
mind that claims the correlation between
mental and physical events is produced on
each occasion by God.
 Pre-established harmony is the parallelist
theory of mind that claims that the
correlation between mental and physical
events was established by God at the
beginning of the universe.
2.1-25
The Causal Closure of the
Physical
 According to the causal closure of the
physical, no physical effect has a nonphysical cause.
 Descartes’ dualistic interactionism
violates this principle.
 So what is the relationship between
minds and bodies?
2.1-26
Epiphenomenalism
 According to epiphenomenalism, the mind
is an ineffective by-product of physical
processes.
 On this view, minds are to bodies as smoke
is to fire.
 Physical events cause mental events but
mental events do not cause physical
events.
2.1-27
Thought Probe: Mental Relay
Stations
 Dualists do not believe that we think with
our brains.
 So what is the function of the brain? To
serve as a mental relay station between
the mind and body?
 Have people with brain damage or
Alzheimer’s disease suffered no
cognitive impairment?
2.1-28
The Problem of Other Minds
 Cartesian minds can’t be sensed
because they have no physical
properties.
 If minds can’t be sensed, how can we
know that other people have minds?
2.1-29
Solipsism
 If one can’t know that other minds exist,
maybe they don’t.
 Solipsism maintains that there is only
one mind in the universe, namely one’s
own.
2.1-30