Substance Dualism and Dualism responses - summary sheet
<p>AQA PHILOSOPHY<br />
3.4 METAPHYICS OF MIND</p>
<p><strong>Please note, this is not a completed worksheet. It is left blank for students to complete using the Metaphysics of Mind textbook, Routledge, Michael Lacewing</strong></p>
<p><strong>Worksheet for the following part of the specification:</strong></p>
<p><strong>Dualist theories<br />
Substance dualism</strong><br />
-Minds exist and are not identical to bodies or to parts of bodies.<br />
-The indivisibility argument for substance dualism (Descartes).</p>
<p><strong>Responses, including:</strong><br />
-the mental is divisible in some sense<br />
-not everything thought of as physical is divisible.<br />
-The conceivability argument for substance dualism (expressed without reference to God) (Descartes).</p>
<p><strong>Responses including:</strong><br />
-mind without body is not conceivable<br />
-what is conceivable may not be metaphysically possible<br />
-what is metaphysically possible tells us nothing about the actual world.</p>
<p><strong>Issues facing dualism as a whole<br />
Issues facing dualism, including:</strong><br />
-The problem of other minds<br />
-Dualism makes a “category mistake” (Gilbert Ryle)</p>
<p><strong>Responses including:</strong><br />
-the argument from analogy<br />
-the existence of other minds is the best hypothesis.</p>
<p><strong>Issues facing interactionist dualism, including:</strong><br />
-the conceptual interaction problem (as articulated by Elisabeth, Princess of Bohemia)<br />
-the empirical interaction problem.</p>
<p><strong>Issues facing epiphenomenalist dualism, including:</strong><br />
-the challenge posed by introspective self-knowledge<br />
-the challenge posed by the phenomenology of our mental life (ie as involving causal connections, both psychological and psycho-physical)<br />
-(not included) the challenge posed by natural selection/evolution.</p>