Essay on Can Substance Dualism Be Defended

Words: 1917
Pages: 8
Open Document
Can Substance Dualism Be Defended?

Substance dualism is a never ending argument in the Philosophy world as it’s been going on for decades. It is the view that the universe contains two important types of entity which is mental and material. The structure of this paper is that four main argument leads to one conclusion. Firstly, I’ll argue about Descartes’s ‘separability argument’ which stands as the definition of Substance Dualism. Secondly, I’ll argue that mental and physical have different and perhaps irreconcilable properties. An argument is not complete without a counter argument which in this case the “pairing” problem that exists in Descartes theory is highlighted and where is the interaction of material and immaterial takes …show more content…
Mental events have a subjective quality, whereas physical events do not. Subjective aspects of mental events are called qualia (or raw feels), a possibility to feel pain, to see a familiar shade of blue, and so on. Raw feels or qualia seem particularly difficult to reduce to anything physical. There is a few articles and though experiment that supports this theory. As an example, Thomas Nagel (1974) characterizes the problem of qualia for physicalistic monism in his article "What is it like to be a bat?” Nagel argued that even if we knew everything there was to know from a third-person, scientific perspective about a bat's sonar system, we still wouldn't know what it is like to be a bat. A thought experiment proposed by David Chalmers is the Zombie Argument. The basic idea is that one can imagine, and therefore conceive the existence of, one's body without any conscious states being associated with it. Chalmers' argument is that it seems very plausible that such a being could exist because all that is needed is that all and only the things that the physical sciences describe about a zombie must be true of it. Since none of the concepts involved in these sciences make reference to consciousness or other mental phenomena, and any physical entity can be by definition described scientifically via physics, the move from conceivability to possibility is not such a large one (Chalmer, 1996).
Show More

Related Documents: Essay on Can Substance Dualism Be Defended

Pros And Cons Of Substance Dualism

Codie Highland Dualism In this essay, I will discuss and logically analyze the opinions in approval of substance dualism and conclude that substance dualism is, undeniable, positively and definitely accurate. Firstly, it is vital to describe what precisely substance dualism is. Basically, it implores the question of: what kind of thing is our mind? According to substance dualists, "the mind and the body are composed of different substances and that the mind is a thinking thing that lacks the usual…

Words 1268 - Pages 6

The Mind-Body Problem

of the most well known theories are dualism and monism, both of which have many sub theories. People have many different beliefs for various reasons, whether it is religion or personal values/beliefs all ideas about the mind/brain problem are supported by empirical studies. The mind/brain problem is most commonly known because of its philosophical implications about whether the mind and brain are different or if there is a relationship between the two. Dualism is the belief that mind and brain are…

Words 1918 - Pages 8

Thinking Things And Extended Things

Student ID - 10011675 8. Descartes argued that there were either ‘thinking things’ or ‘extended things’. What were the consequences for sociological theory? Throughout sociological theory Descartes is known for his Cartesian dualism theory which states two different sorts of beings. Thinking things which are the subjects and extended things which are objects. The subject is defined as the conscious mind and the object would be the world of objects, which consist of height, weight, colour and so…

Words 2957 - Pages 12

Meditation on First Philosophy Essay

Question: Meditation on First Philosophy It can be seen that Descartes Meditations on first philosophy raised a lot of questions regarding the existence and nature of the self, the existence of God, the nature of truth and the possibility of error, and finally also the essence and existence of bodies along other things. Descartes did all this through the medium of his six meditations. Descartes from his very first Meditation, that of concerning things that can be called in to doubt, gives reasons on…

Words 2560 - Pages 11