Physicalist Dualism

Dualism claims that the mind is a distinct nonphysical thing, a complete entity that is independent of any physical body to which it is temporarily attached.

Mind and body are believed to be either one or two separated entities, depending on which philosopher you would ask. The belief that the mind and body are one entity is defined as monism. Physicalism is a monism. Those that believe in the idea of physicalism also believe that mind and body are not separate substances. Physicalism claims that the mind is something that is physical. It also claims that the mind is reduced to or identified with behavior. According to the website, philosophy basics, “those that believe in physicalism believe that everything that exists is no more extensive than its physical properties and that the only existing substances is physical.” Both have valid arguments to prove their theories, which keep philosophers divided in between the two. Philosophers Thomas Nagel and Frank Jackson do not. Both philosophers have found problems with physicalism that seem to make the theory less sound. However, functionlists who are physicalists can argue back in objection to Nagel’s proposal to make the physicalists approach more sound.

Physicalism is the controversial doctrine that suggests the world is entirely physical, even that which is mental. Frank Jackson’s knowledge argument is one of the most well-known challenges to physicalism. Jackson’s knowledge argument is a dispute to the physicalist claim that mental states can be explained physically. (281) He demonstrates his argument in a thought experiment known as Mary’s Room.

To explain what physicalism or functionalism stand for in philosophy, I will introduce an idea of mind-body problem first. The mind-body problem concerns with the relationship between the mind and the body, questioning how mind and brain are related. It is a mental description examining how each relate and interconnect. From this, many beliefs or solutions have formed, including a monism, a belief that mind and body are the same and not separate substances.

Dualism is not the most widely held view in the current philosophical and scientific community, but it is the most common theory of mind in the public at large. Substance Dualism states that each mind is a distinct non-physical substance, a thing, an individual “package” of non-physical substance, a thing whose identity is independent of any physical body to which it may be temporarily “attached”. Property Dualism states that there is no substance to be dealt with here beyond the physical brain, the brain has a special set of properties possessed by no other kind of physical object.

The mind-body problem is an age-old topic in philosophy that questions the relationship between the mental aspect of life, such as the field of beliefs, pains, and emotions, and the physical side of life which deals with matter, atoms, and neurons. There are four concepts that each argue their respective sides. For example, Physicalism is the belief that humans only have a physical brain along with other physical structures, whereas Idealism argues that everything is mind-based. Furthermore, Materialism argues that the whole universe is purely physical. However, the strongest case that answers the commonly asked questions such as “Does the mind exist?” and “Is the mind your brain?” is Dualism.

One of the most talked about concepts of philosophy is that of the mind-body problem. In short, the mind-body problem is the relationship between the mind and the body. Specifically, it’s the connection between our mental realm of thoughts, including beliefs, ideas, sensations, emotions, and our physical realm, the actual matter of which we are made up of the atoms, neurons. The problem comes when we put the emphasis on mind and body. Are the mind and body one physical thing, or two separate entities. Two arguments have stood amongst the rest, Interactionism and physicalism. Interactionism claims that mind and matter are two separate categories with a casual integration between the two. By contrast, physicalism draws from the idea that all aspects of the human body are under one physical being, there are no nonphysical connections that come into play. While both state a clear and arguable statement regarding mind-body problem, Interactionism gives a more plausible answer to the mind-body problem because although it may seem like we are tied as one, our minds have a subconscious that influence our thoughts, actions, ideas, and beliefs, which is completely independent from the realm of our physical matter.

In my opinion both of the theories structuralism and functionalism involved the study of the human mind and how it works and they were both concerned with the mind at the conscious level. Personally, my feel of the two is that functionalism is more important than structuralism. I believe that functionalism is far better school than structuralism as it is more flexible and scientific in nature which I can relate myself with. I happen to think that functionalism is an object that is designed to determine solely by its function. These are a few of the similarities between structuralism and functionalism. Throughout this paper I will further explore some of the differences between these

Physicalism is the view that all things in our mental phenomena ultimately belong to the domain of physical phenomena. This could mean, that they either are physical, or depend on physical phenomena’s such as neural signals in the brain. Another way to look at physicalism is that everything lies within the domain of physics, and everything physical is made up of different arrangements of the fundamental physical elements. The opposite of physicalism would be anti-physicalism. Anti-physicalism is a view that some or all, mental phenomena do not always belong to the domain of physical phenomena. With the basic understanding of these two concepts one can approach the mind and body problem.

A physicalist is one who believes that all information is physical. This is a view that sees all factual knowledge as that which can be formulated as a statement about physical objects and activities. Thus, the language of science can be reduced to third

1. Compare and contrast the physicalist identity theory of mind with dualism about the mind.

Physicalism is a philosophical theory that attempts to solve the mind-body problem with its explanation of the results of the interactions between our brains and our bodies. Physicalism explains that everything in the universe is made up of

One philosophy that explains the mind-body problem is monism. Monism states that all our thoughts can be reduced down to a single substance. (Friedenber & Silverman, 2006. p.31) In other words, the mental and physical realities no different. Two main ideas arise from monism; either all our physical experiences are mental projections or our mental experiences result from physical substances. If you think atoms make up everything, you believe in physical monism. Physical monism states that “nothing exists apart from physical world” (McLeod, 2007). Instead of a physical only reality, one might believe that what we perceive to be physical is just a creation of our mind. Two varieties of monism, Idealism and Solipsism, believe in a mental

68). An example of a theory created by materialist philosophers is the mind-brain type identity theory. This theory claims that a specific mental state is identical to a type of neural event taking place. Therefore, dualism would be nonexistent. One common debate in favor of mind-body dualism is that we can access our minds instantly. We have “privileged access” to our minds (Chung & Hyland, 2012, p. 69). Whereas, we do not have direct access to our physical brains, as we can only find out the physiological processes indirectly. That being said, our minds and brains cannot be the same thing, therefore supporting dualistic beliefs. One of the biggest non-materialist debates has to do with consciousness. Consciousness can be thought of in different ways, such as being awake versus asleep, in a state of perceiving things, or simply active neuronal activity. Non-materialists often argue that there is another level of consciousness. This level is known as “phenomenal consciousness” or “qualia” (Chung & Hyland, 2012, p. 70). Qualia is a conscious experience in which the individual feels something that cannot be explained in physical terms. It is a sensation, feeling, or perception that is specific to the individual. These are just a few of the more popular takes

Knowledge argument stands against physicalism which is proposed by Frank Jackson. Physicalism or materialism is distinguished with phenomenal consciousness of experiences that depicts mind is subjective and implies physicality.