Dualism Vs Physicalism - 1766 Words

I would like to begin this paper by addressing what question I hope to answer through the entirety of this paper: is the mind physical? As simple as this question may seem to be, there still, to this day, is not a definite answer. There are, mostly, two approaches to answering this problem, through dualism or physicalism. The dualist, for the purposes of this paper, simply believes that the mind and the body are not equal and therefore, they are not one in the same. The physicalist, however, would come back to say that there are no such things as non-physical objects and therefore, they would conclude that the body and the mind are both physical. After weighing on both sides of this argument, I am going to defend the physicalist ideas and†¦show more content†¦An objection to this statement would be that we are not actually gaining any new knowledge after experiencing events. What if, in reality, all we are doing is obtaining a new ability? Since we already know all the physi cal information about experiencing the color red, the physicalist would say that there would not be any new knowledge to obtained from this event, but instead, we just know the ability to see the color red now. But, in another section of Jackson’s article, he refers back to the famous article What is it Like to Be a Bat?, written by the philosopher Thomas Nagel, to help strengthen his argument against physicalism. Jackson states how there is no amount of physical information that could possibly tell us what it is like to be anything other than a human being (Jackson 416-417). For instance, the dualist would say that I cannot possibly understand what it is like to actually be a dog. Even if I were able to obtain all the possible physical information there is about dogs, according to the dualist, I would still be missing the actual experience of being a dog. However, the physicalist would still argue that, although I am not a dog, I can still know the physical information about what it is like to be a dog and know how they perceive and experience everything in life. Then if, some day, IShow MoreRelatedThe Grand Scheme Of Physicalism Vs. Dualism1341 Words   |  6 Pagesthey happen, and we don’t know how to find out. But just because we don’t know something, or can’t explain it, doesn’t mean it’s unexplainable or that we should give up. In the grand scheme of Physicalism vs. Dualism, NDEs†¦ don’t really prove anything. They don’t make Dualism ‘more likely’, because Dualism can’t even explain how our body then functions normally, let alone what is happening during an NDE. How then, can we say that this is a good explanation at all? There comes a point, just like withRead MoreThe Mind-Body Problem Essay1204 Words   |  5 Pagesto neuroscience and that the Cartesian dualism argument as it is, may be wrong. However future neuroscience discoveries could continue to claim significant parts of both theories as wrong, meaning materialism as it is may not be correct either. The Mind-Body problem forms the basis of the philosophy of the mind argument. Descartes, the rationalist philosopher and scientist, was the first to propose a coherent, in depth theory, known as Cartesian dualism which supposes that â€Å"the mental and theRead MoreResearch Paper on William James and Functionalism1230 Words   |  5 Pagessensory inputs, and behavioral outputs . Functionalism is a theoretical level between physical implementation and behavioral output. Therefore, it is different from its predecessors of Cartesian dualism (advocating discrete mental and physical substances) and Skinnerian behaviorism and physicalism (declaring only physical substances): It is only concerned with the effective functions of the brain.