This week’s aims:

To set clear expectations regarding homework, organisation, etc.

To re-introduce the debate concerning the mind-body problem

To analyse dualist and materialist responses to this problem

To understand the difference between substance dualism and property dualism

One-to-one reviews – analysing AS results and setting targets

A2 Philosophy

• How do we decide what is morally right?

• Practical ethical issues

• Is ethical language cognitive or non-cognitive?

Moral Philosophy

• What is the relationship between the mental and the physical?

• Do other people have minds?

• Is the ‘mind’ just the brain?

Philosophy of Mind

Philosophy of Mind

Who am I?

I am suffering from an incurable physical illness. I am informed that a technique exists to transplant

my brain into the body of someone who has died from a brain tumour.

I agree and my brain is transplanted into this new body.

The body works perfectly and I have all my memories intact, but I look totally different.

My friends and family no longer recognise me, but the friends and family of the other person greet me in the street

Is this new person ‘me’ or not?

Materialism Dualism

Brain

Mind

Brain

Mind

The mind-body problem

The mind-body problem

What is the relationship between the mental and the physical? E.g. How does the thought

‘steal the car!’ lead to the action pictured here?

Qualia

The world seems real to us because of the experiences we have of it – the visual look of it, the colours we observe, the feel of it, the smell of it, etc.

These aspects of sensations – the way things look, feel, smell, taste and sound – are referred to by philosophers of mind as qualia, and they appear to be features unique to the mind.

For a dualist, qualia show we have a mind.

Qualia

Read the bottom of p.6 and the top of p.7 What are qualia?

Do you agree that qualia exist?

Task – 30 minutes

Select an action (My example earlier was about deciding to steal a car,

but yours needs to be different)Draw this actionNow comment on this action (e.g. by having

two characters discuss what’s going on)Include the following:

Some discussion of the concept of qualia Dualist and materialist viewpoints on whether the

existence of qualia show that we have a mind

Dualism

Dualism argues that because your body (and therefore your brain) is part of this physical world, it’s hard to see how it could contain conscious rational thought.

How could any material thing, including the grey, squishy lump of matter that constitutes your brain, have feelings, smells, tastes, and qualia in general?

How could it be conscious and aware of itself and its surroundings?

How could it think rationally about itself or have intentionality?

Dualism

The mind is distinct from the physical

Substance dualism: Two kinds of substance

exist - mental and physical

Property dualism: Mental properties exist and cannot be

accounted for in terms of physical properties

Substance dualism

Substance dualism – p.9

What is a substance?

For Descartes, what is the difference between physical and thinking substances?

Is Descartes saying that the non-physical mind is the ‘real’ person?

Substance dualism on Moodle

Substance dualism – p.10

Why did Descartes argue that the difference between the mind and the brain ‘clear and distinct’? (Use words like ‘qualia’, ‘privacy’ and

‘intentionality’ in your answer)

Was Descartes right to make this claim?

Task – 30 minutes

Draw or write out Descartes’ main arguments for substance dualism (You could look ahead to p.11 and p.14-15 to help you

do this)Now criticise Descartes’ arguments

Review of learning

What is the mind-body problem?What are qualia?What is substance dualism?What is a substance?For Descartes, what is the difference between

physical and thinking substances?For Descartes, is the non-physical mind the

‘real person’?For Descartes, why is the difference between

the brain and the mind ‘clear and distinct’?

Property dualism

Property dualism

Property dualism argues that there are physical and mental properties – it doesn’t argue that there are physical and non-physical substances.

Qualia are non-physical properties that exist in the brain’s physical substance. They are purely mental properties.

Property dualism – p.19

How do substance dualism and property dualism differ in their explanation of qualia?

David Chalmers

Philosophical zombies – p.19-20

How does the philosophical zombies argument support property dualism?

Property dualism on Moodle

The ‘knowledge’/ Mary argument for property dualism

The ‘knowledge’/Mary argument – p.23

How does this argument show that materialism is false?

Review of learning

What are qualia? (3 marks)

What is substance dualism? (3 marks)

What is property dualism? (3 marks)

3 mark question

Homework

Log into Moodle and click on A2 Advanced Philosophy – Homework and Assignments

Look at the second block that says 2: The indivisibility argument and the conceivability

argument. Look at / read at least three links. At least one of them must be an article or website

rather than just a YouTube link. Feel free to look at more links than this if you like.Make two mind maps – one for each key

argument.