Descartes, Mind Body Dualism, Materialism and Idealism

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Descartes, Mind Body Dualism, Materialism and
Idealism

• Professor Scott Bowman

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Descartes
René Descartes (1596-1650) is one of the most
important Western philosophers of the past few
centuries. During his lifetime, Descartes was
just as famous as an original physicist,
physiologist and mathematician. But it is as a
highly original philosopher that he is most
frequently read today. He attempted to restart
philosophy in a fresh direction. For example, his
philosophy refused to accept the Aristotelian and
Scholastic traditions that had dominated
philosophical thought throughout the Medieval
period it attempted to fully integrate
philosophy with the 'new' sciences and Descartes
changed the relationship between philosophy and
theology. Such new directions for philosophy made
Descartes into a revolutionary figure.
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Descartes

• Intuition of the mind
• I think therefore I am
• The deduction of God
• I have an idea of perfection. There must be a
  perfect being to be its cause. There must be a
  perfect being god.
• The deduction of Matter
• We sense an external world all we are including
  the ideas of matter must come from god. God would
  not deceive us or he would have a moral defect
  and he is perfect hence there must be matter.

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Descartes
God
Mind
Matter
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Objections to Descartes

• Does thinker require a thinker?
• Could the concept of god be possible without a
  god?
• The really big problem the mind body problem!

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The Mind-Body Problem

• There are two kinds of stuff
• Incorporeal stuff the essence of what we think
• Corporal stuff the essence of what can be
  extended. (Extendist and Non-extendist)
• How can the come together?
• If the mind and body are different substances how
  can there be a casual connection between them?

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Descartes answer to the mind-body problem

• Interactionism
• There is a place (the pineal gland) where the
  mind and the body come together and the mind can
  influence the body.

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From Dualism to Monolism
Mind-Body Dualism
Idealism
Materialism
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Idealism

• Idea ism. All things are constituted by the
  mind and its ideas
• Objective idealism
• Things exist apart from our perception of them
• Subjective idealism
• Things are dependent on our perception for their
  existence

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Berkeley and Locke

• Locke believed
• substance
• Knowing involves knowing and known. (the known is
  a mental representation)
• Primary quality (shape size etc)
• Secondary quality (colour, sound, texture, taste)
  substance
• Bishop George Berkeley
• To be is to be perceived.

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From Dualism to Monolism
Mind-Body Dualism
Idealism
Materialism
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Materialism

• Matter with its motion and qualities is the
  ultimate reality of all things
• A pre Socrates concept - Democritus

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Some key concepts round materialism

• Mechanistic materialism
• Man as a machine
• Man as a computer
• Every thing is predetermined just a set of
  reactions to stimuli
• Behaviourism - Skinner

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Materialism

• Materialism is a form of naturalism
• All that exists can be studies scientifically.
  Use observation and experimentation

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Are the mind and the body the same?
Brain states Mind
Electrical impulses Brain waves
Thoughts, sensations, Consciousness
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Behaviorism

• Soft behaviorism
• Descriptions of behaviour
• Hard behaviorism
• There is nothing but behaviour

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Well????

• Music
• Art
• God
• Love
• Wanting to be better

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Skepticism

• Commonsense skepticism
• Every day doubt and suspension of judgement
• Philosophical skepticism
• Doubting some of the fundamental ideas within
  philosophy Forms?
• Absolute skepticism
• Those that believe that we know nothing