The MindBody Problem

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The Mind-Body Problem

• "I believe every word that man just said, because
  it's exactly what I wanted to hear."- Space
  Ghost, SGC2C, "Chambraigne" YouTube link

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Background
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What Is a Mind?

• Whats on your mind, son?
• He was not in the right state of mind.
• Shes suffering from a mental illness.
• What are thinking about right now?
• What do you want for dinner?
• What are your thoughts and feelings on this
  subject?

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Mental vs. Physical

• Physical stuff
• Storke tower
• Water
• Electrons
• Your arms
• Gravity
• Etc.

• Mental stuff
• Thinking
• Imagining
• Belief
• Desire
• Sensations
• Etc.

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Aspects of the Mind

• Mental states
• Ex belief (/think), desire (/want), pain, hope,
  fear
• Mental processes
• Ex reasoning, conceiving, imagining

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Problems / Issues
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The Mind-Body Problem

• The Problem (roughly) how is the mind related
  to the body in the ways it seems to be (e.g.
  causally related)?
• Or, more generally, how are the mental and the
  physical related?

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Why Care?

• Just interesting
• Could help to figure out whether we can survive
  the deaths of our bodies

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3 Problems of Mentality

• The Problem of Consciousness / Subjectivity
• The Problem of Intentionality
• The Problem of Mental Causation

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The Problem of Consciousness

• Consciousness
• What its like apect (consider colorblindness)
• Qualitative features of the mind (qualia)
• Subjective aspect
• Phenomenological or phenomenal aspect
• Ex pain, taste, smell, craving
• The Problem How can physical things be or give
  rise to consciousness?

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The Problem of Intentionality

• Intentionality aboutness (the feature of being
  about something), representational features
• Ex My belief that the earth is not flat is
  about the earth.
• Ex Your desire to not have arthritis is about
  inflammation of the joints (even if you dont
  know thats what it is)

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Intentionality (cont.)

• The mental state has a content (usually thought
  to be a proposition)
• The Problem How can states of a mind be about
  something or represent something?

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The Problem of Mental Causation

• Mental Causation mental phenomena causing
  non-mental phenomena.
• Ex Seems like my deciding (making up my mind)
  to cut the Hume reading caused me (at least in
  part) to move my mouth in a certain way and tell
  you not to read the Hume excerpt (a physical
  phenomenon).
• Problem How does (or can) this happen?

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Some Theories Problems
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Oversimplified Theories

• Dualism mind soul
• Behaviorism mind behavior
• Identity Theory mind brain
• Functionalism mind causal role

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Two Main Categories

• Monism there is only one fundamental kind of
  thing in the universe (either mental or
  physical).
• Dualism there are two fundamentally different
  kinds of thing in the universe (mental and
  physical).

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2 Kinds of Monism

• Physicalism (materialism) there is only one
  fundamental kind of thing in the universe
  physical things.
• Idealism there is only one fundamental kind of
  thing in the universe mental things.

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1st Distinction bet. Dualisms

• Substance Dualism there are two fundamentally
  different kinds of substance in the universe
  mental and physical substances.
• Property Dualism there are two fundamentally
  different kinds of property in the universe
  mental and physical properties.

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2nd Distinction bet. Dualisms

• Interactionism there are two fundamentally
  different kinds of thing in the universe mental
  and physical things and they can causally
  interact.
• Epiphenomenalism there are two fundamentally
  different kinds of thing in the universe mental
  and physical things and only physical can cause
  mental.

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Interaction Problem for Dualism

• Mental physical seem to causally interact
• But if they are two distinct kinds of substances
  (or properties) that are not in space and time,
  how can they interact?!
• Causation only applies to physical things in
  space and time

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A Version of Physicalism

• Behaviorism all mental states are reducible to
  behavior or dispositions to behave in certain
  ways.
• (Oversimplified) ExSmith is thirsty if there
  were water available, Smith would drink some.

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Another Kind of Physicalism

• Identity Theory mental states (or events or
  processes) just are strictly identical to
  physical states (e.g. of the brain).
• (Oversimplified) ExPain C-fiber stimulation.
  find neural correlates for mental

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MR Problem for Identity Theory

• A thought experiment
• Encounter an alien race thats silicon-based (not
  carbon-based, like us)
• They react like theyre in pain when you, say,
  stab them
• Would they not have a mind or mental states or
  feelings just because they arent made of the
  same stuff?
• No mental states are multiply realizable (able
  to be realized in multiple kinds of material,
  like a paper weight)

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Kind of Physicalism or Dualism

• Functionalism a mental state just is a certain
  functional role (defined in terms of
  environmental inputs, other mental states, and
  behavioral outputs).
• Mental states are like a heart or paper weight

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Qualia Problem for Functionalism

• Qualia the qualitative aspects of the mind
  (e.g. what its like to be in pain or see the
  color blue)
• Chalmerss Zombie Thought Experiment
• There could be zombies that have no qualia or
  consciousness at all
• but are functionally exactly like us (cry out
  when cut, etc.)
• But functionalism says this isnt possible