Dualisms MindBody Interaction Problem

1
Dualisms Mind-Body Interaction Problem

• How is it possible for an immaterial substance
  (mind) to interact with a material substance
  (body)?
• How can causally determined bodies interact with
  causally undetermined minds in a manner that
  preserves free will?
• Why cant my mind move your body?

2
Descartes Method of Doubt

• Two conjectures
• what if Im dreaming?
• what if an all-powerful evil demon is bent on
  deceiving me?
• In either case, I cant doubt my own existence as
  a thinking thing (cogito ergo sum), which implies
  metaphysical dualism
• The criteria for certainty is clarity and
  distinctness

3
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) and Materialism

• Like Galileo, Hobbes held that everything
  (including what we call minds) is just bodies in
  motion
• In sense perception, outer motion impinges on our
  sense organs to produce inner motion (phantasms)
  out of which come all other psychological
  phenomena

4
Two Problems for Materialism

• Given that all that exists is swarms of particles
  in motion, where do the perceptions (appearances)
  come from? (Why do I see the lawn as green?)
• Given that all that exists is swarms of particles
  in motion, where does the perceiver come from?
  (Who or what is seeing the lawn?)

5
Neutralism Conway and Spinoza

• Anne Conway (1631-1679)
• Every created thing (creature) has both physical
  and mental (spiritual) properties
• There is a continuum of creatures from most
  material to most mental
• Benedictus de Spinoza (1632-1677)
• There is one infinite substance (God/Nature)
• Since God and Nature are one, there is no human
  free will and no personal immortality

6
John Locke (1632-1704) and Representative Realism

• Locke was a metaphysical dualist who held that
  all ideas in the mind must originate from sense
  perception (empiricism)
• Primary qualities (e.g., shape) are sensible
  qualities that reside both in our perceptions and
  in the external objects themselves
• Secondary qualities (e.g., color) are relative to
  perceivers and cant exist without them (so they
  arent really in the objects)

7
George Berkeley (1685-1753) and Subjective
Idealism

• Lockes representative realism is the short road
  to skepticism
• The only way to avoid skepticism is to reject the
  concept of material objects existing
  independently of minds
• All sensible qualities are relative to
  perceivers to be is to be perceived (esse est
  percipi)
• God is the universal perceiver