Materialism

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  • Materialism
    • B) Behaviourism
      • Another type of materialism is behaviourism, which sees human thoughts as simply learned behaviours.
      • Probably the best-known behaviourist was B. F. Skinner. He believes that what we consider mental events are simply learned behaviours. The idea of a mental state separated from the body, in any sense, is a radical misunderstanding. Animals learn behaviours are conditioned to particular behaviours as we know from the study of Pavlov's dogs, for instance.
      • For Skinner, he supported his arguments by much scientific work, especially experiments in relation to animal behaviour. He claims mental acts are caused acts, explicable at a physical level. He says in 'About Behaviourism':
        •   "An organism behaves as it does because of its current structure, but most of this is out of reach of introspection"
    • C) Objections to behaviourism
      • Various philosophical objections have been made, perhaps most notably by Daniel C. Dennett, especially in his article 'Skinner Skinned'. 
      • Dennett argues that Skinner over-simplifies human consciousness, notably because he assumes that what is true of the consciousness of a pigeon will apply also to humans. An animal want or desire may be explained as a learned behaviour. But, Dennett argues, the same is not true for the human.
        • If I am asked why I am reading a book, simply saying it is a learned response misses the point, if I say, because want to', I am providing an explanation. If said 'l enjoy this author's books and am interested in the period he writes about', I am taking my explanation even further. To reduce this to a learned behaviour misses the point, my reason for reading the book excludes certain other reasons, I am not reading the book for survival, keeping fit, or getting rich, but for other chosen goals. 
      • Dennett argues that Skinner would be right only if his explanation stopped with the fact he had a desire, but human thinking moves beyond Skinner's 'basic theory':
        •   "Insofar as 'the basic analysis' proves anything, it proves that people are not like pigeons, that Skinner's unmasking explanations will not be forthcoming (informative)."
          • If Dennett is right, there is something more to human consciousness than something simply explicable as a material cause-and-effect. What that something is remains elusive however.
    • A) Richard Dawkins
      • Richard Dawkins is often cited as an example of a materialist thinker. Yet on first glance, his approach is much more subtle than basic reductionism. Unsurprisingly, he rejects any notion of the disembodied soul adopted by Plato and Descartes, and many other notable religious believers.
      • He finds no empirical evidence for such an entity and mocks religious believers for supporting such a bizarre notion. Nevertheless, he acknowledges the mystery of consciousness, while asserting his faith that it should be possible for scientific enquiry into DNA eventually explaining the phenomenon, to do so will be difficult as the wonder of consciousness, such as imagination, scientific research, art and so on, are so various and do not always have obvious evolutionary value. 
      • Dawkins makes an interesting distinction between what he calls Soul One and Soul Two. Soul One is the separate substance of much traditional thought, Soul Two is intellectual and spiritual power, higher development of the moral faculties, feeling, imagination, etc. Of course, these are rooted in the body and their precise nature is yet to be scientifically explained. The point Dawkins is trying to express, however, is that there is something to be explained.
    • Materialism is the philosophical view that there exists only physical matter. In the case of human beings, this means that there is only flesh and blood, nerves and cells.
    • This means that anything said about a person is absolutely reducible to sentences about physical processes. So, if I said that intended to paint a painting, this statement could be reduced to a statement about the behaviours of brain cells, neurons and electrical activity within the brain.
    • Some philosophers question whether every act of what we call consciousness is reducible in this way. As we have seen, rejection of substance dualism does not entail materialism as a necessary consequence, and more than often, those described as materialists turn out to be less materialist than they appear.

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