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Dualism

This document outlines arguments for and against dualism, the view that the mind and body are distinct, non-physical entities. Arguments for dualism include appeals to religion, introspection, and parapsychology. However, these are criticized on grounds that religion is not a valid basis for science, introspection is not objective, and there is no good evidence for parapsychology. Arguments against dualism include Occam's razor favoring solely physical explanations, dualism's inability to explain the relationship between mind and brain, strong evidence that brain injuries impact mental states, and that evolutionary theory suggests humans emerged through purely physical processes. While dualism poses challenges in explaining the relationship between mind and physical matter, the document does not take a

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Elijah Salvador
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90 views

Dualism

This document outlines arguments for and against dualism, the view that the mind and body are distinct, non-physical entities. Arguments for dualism include appeals to religion, introspection, and parapsychology. However, these are criticized on grounds that religion is not a valid basis for science, introspection is not objective, and there is no good evidence for parapsychology. Arguments against dualism include Occam's razor favoring solely physical explanations, dualism's inability to explain the relationship between mind and brain, strong evidence that brain injuries impact mental states, and that evolutionary theory suggests humans emerged through purely physical processes. While dualism poses challenges in explaining the relationship between mind and physical matter, the document does not take a

Uploaded by

Elijah Salvador
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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From various online authors, chruchland, and some of my notes

Arguments for dualism


1. Argument from religion - analogy of the belief in dualism of body-mind with th
e belief that we have a mortal body and an immortal soul
Criticism: 1) historically using religion to explain science failed
2) social forces determines which religion to choose
2. Argument from introspection - assumes that our faculty of inner observation o
r introspection reveals the true nature of things just like using our senses or
even better.
Criticism: sensory observations fail; why would introspection be better at descr
ibing reality unless it is something different
3. Argument from irreducibility - reasoning (eg. Language and Mathematics) are m
ental phenomena without physical explanation
Criticism:
1) Materialistic Problem: How to explain belief in pure physical form?
2) Dualistic Problem: there are some physical explanations(eg. calculato
rs); until dualists can prove that physical reduction is impossible the playing
field is even
4. Argument from parapsychology - Telepathy (mind
reading), precognition (seeing the future), telekinesis
(thought control of material objects), and clairvoyance
(knowledge of distant objects)
Criticism: there is no trustworthy evidence that there are such phenomenato supp
ort parapsychology
==========================================================
Arguments against Dualism
1.Occam's razor (strong argument but not decisive)
ARG: ---> physicality has less entities than dualist ---> physical and non physi
cal
Counter-consideration: This is not yet a decisive point against dualism, since n
either dualism nor materialism can yet explain
all of the phenomena to be explained. Slight edge on materialism because physica
l matter exists while spiritual existence is debatable
2. explanatory impotence (not decisive)
ARG: incapability of dualists in explaining what constitutes the mind stuff comp
ared to explanatory success of materialism
Counter-consideration: the reason why science has explanatory success because ph
ysical things are easier to study compared to mind stuff
3. neural dependence (almost decisive)
ARG: brain injuries have an effect on a person's rational thinking because ratio

nal thinking depends on neurological activities


Counter-consideration: the brain is the medium in which mind and body interact
Q: How can the mind and brain be separate if evidently concussions changes the m
ental states of people?
A: Evidently brain injuries have an effect on a person's rational thinking becau
se rational thinking depends on neurological activities
4. evolutionary history (strongest argument against dualism)
ARG: humans were created from a pure physical process and we should learn to acc
ept that conclusion: materialism is accepted by the professional community
Counter-consideration: Irreducibility of things to physical matter and things wi
thout physical explanations. Who created the complexity of creating physical mat
ter? God the creator.

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