Newall: Philosophy of Mind

1
Newall Philosophy of Mind

• Mind and body are the same (monism)
• Physicalism physical objects or processes (e.g.,
  neural firings) are tokens (examples) of
  types of things (minds or mental events)
• Reductive physicalism minds/mental events are
  reducible to physical objects/events
• Non-reductive physicalism minds/mental events
  supervene on physical objects and events that
  is, they depend on, but are not reducible to,
  physical objects and processes

2
More Monistic Theories of Mind

• Mind-Brain (Identity) Theory mental states are
  simply brain states
• Objection brain states and introspective qualia
  (experiences) have different characteristics
• Functionalism mental states are associations or
  linkages of sensory stimuli and behaviors
• Eliminative Materialism we should replace terms
  like thought with materialist expressions
• Idealism physical objects/processes are really
  only mental events or objects of mind

3
Dualistic Theories of Mind

• Predicate Dualism the mental and physical are
  said to be different kinds of things
• Property Dualism the mental and physical are
  different characteristics of things
• Substance Dualism the mental and physical are
  simply different kinds of real things
• The major problem with dualism (viz.,
  interaction) concerns how the physical and mental
  can affect or relate to one another

4
Attempted Solutions to the Challenge of Dualistic
Interactionism

• Epiphenomenalism bodies can influence minds,
  but minds cannot influence bodies
• Objections why cant minds influence bodies? Why
  have the mental at all?
• Occasionalism Gods intervention accounts
  for the interaction

N. Malebranche

• Parallelism apparent interaction is due to a
  pre-established harmony between the physical and
  mental

G. W. Leibniz