Property Dualism
- Created by: Ben123S
- Created on: 22-04-19 10:35
Property Dualism
- One kind of substance, physical substance - there are two fundamentally different kinds of property, mental and physical
- Mental properties are possessed by physical substances, but at least some mental properties do not depend on physical properties in the way physicalism claims
- Non-reductive
Qualia
- Intrinsic and non-intentional phenomenal properties that are introspectively accessible
- The feely side of things
- Properties such as pain, the smell of coffee, the visual experience of a red rose
- Non-physical quality
- Irreducible to physical, behaviour or functional properties
Frank Jackson
Jackson suggests that mental properties are
- Non-interactive/non-causal
- Ontologically independent
- Derive from physical properties but they don't cause anything
- Mental properties emerge from physical substance but don't have a causal function
Knowledge Mary Argument (Frank Jackson)
Criticism of Mary Argument
- Epiphenomenalism is counter-intuitive because I know mental properties do cause actions, such as pain on numerous occasions has prevented me from causing further pain to myself. E.g. withdrawing my hand when placed on something hot
- When I experience red it is simply a perception by physicalist brain states
- Mary does not gain new propositional knowledge but does gain ability knowledge
- Mary does not gain new propositional knowledge but does gain acquaintance knowledge
East and Hard problem of consciousness (David Char
Easy problem
- What neuroscience addresses - where mental processes happen in the brain
- Solvable
- Correlations not explanations
- E.g. pain is c-fibres firing
Hard problem
- What it actually feels like to experience pain
- Neuroscience cannot actually explain what consciousness is, but can only show correlations
Fundamental properties + Emergent Mental Propertie
Fundamental Properties
- In the same way that gravity is a fundamental force
Emergent mental properties
- This means that consciousness is a real phenomenon, but not substantial (it cannot exist alone without a living brain to produce it)
- Conscious experiences are held to emerge when a developing brain reaches a certain level of complexity - mental properties are emergent
David Chalmers
- Wants to be a physicalist but cannot be found
- We should consider consciousness as a fundamental force
- Physicalism and physics has not sufficiently explained consciousness, we must think outside of it
Philosophical Zombie (David Chalmers)
He argues qualia by presenting his zombie argument, explaining that a philosophical zombie, an exact physical duplicate of person but without consciousness/qualia could exist. He is not saying that there is actually philosophical zombies that exist, instead, that it is conceivable that there are philosophical zombies. Even though I am confident that there are other minds that are conscious, it is not to the same degree of certainty that I can reach with myself, as only I can apply Descartes’ irrefutable logic ‘I think therefore I am’. We cannot confirm this consciousness through physical means, so it can be concluded that there are phenomenal properties of consciousness that are not physical properties.
Criticism of Philosophical Zombie
-
a 'philosophical zombie'/a 'zombie' world is not conceivable
-
what is conceivable may not be metaphysically possible
-
what is metaphysically possible tells us nothing about the actual world.
Causal Powers Issue
- It is illogical to say that qualia have non-causal powers - through introspection, it is clear that they do
- Saying they have causal powers leads to the same issue facing Descartes - the mind-body problem of interaction
- Response: we cannot understand qualia and how it interacts with the world since it is not part of the physical world
- Counter: Closed universe
Related discussions on The Student Room
- AQA A Level Philosophy Paper 1 7172/1 - 19 May 2022 [Exam Chat] »
- AQA A Level Philosophy Paper 1 + 2 (7172/1+2) 18th and 26th May 2023 [Exam Chat] »
- OCR Religious' studies A level soul, mind and body question »
- A-level Philosophy Study Group 2022-2023 »
- A Level Philosophy 25 marker - please help! »
- OCR A-Level Religious Studies Paper 1 (H573/01) 12th June 2023 [Exam Chat] »
- I got accepted into King's college for an MA in philosophy, how good is it? »
- buddy up for student flat share London »
- OCR Religious Studies A Level Predictions »
- I cant chose between philosophy BA or economics BSC »
Comments
No comments have yet been made