Churchland on Matter and Consciousness

2023-2 Metaphysics of the Self Segment 1 ( P. Churchland, ch. 2 of Matter and Consciousness)

 

1. Mind-Body dualist address mind-body problem, the most common dualist view

Dualism generally divides into Substance (Cartesian) dualism and Property dualism. Both claims that the nature of consciousness and mental states is non-physical. On the one hand, Descartes as a representative of substance dualists holds that reality divides into two substances – res extensa (extended substance) and res cogitans (thinking substance). While physical substance is divisible, extended, and observable, mental substance is indivisible, not extended, and not inter-subjectively accessible (first-person access by introspection). On the other hand, property dualist claims that there is only one material substance regarding the mental state. However, the brain has distinct properties including physical and nonphysical ones. Property dualist again divides into epiphenomenalism and interactionist property dualism according to whether they admit mental properties have causal effects on the brain or not.

 

2. Present the strongest objection to two dualisms.

First, substance materialism cannot sufficiently explain how non-physical substance can interact with physical substance. This defect is crucial when we consider the fact that all known mental phenomena depend on neural system that is purely physical. Second, evolutionary history shows that we have been evolved from the simple organism and our nervous system is merely more complex more that that of simple organism in degree. Thus, it is superfluous to take any non-physical substance or property into our accounts of mental states.  

 

3. According to behaviorism / reductive materialism / functionalism / eliminate materialism, mental state having such a pain is ( )

Behaviorism: a disposition to scream, to take aspirin, and so on.

Reductive materialism (the identity theory): a physical process or state that can be fully explained and reduced to physical phenomena.

Functionalism: a function taking damage or trauma as an input and producing distress or annoyance as an output. In other words, it is a unique causal role.

Eliminate Materialism: the concept of folk-psychology that should be eliminated.

 

4. Eliminate materialism: what does eliminate mean?

The term ‘eliminate’ means that we should remove the concept of folk-psychology due to its failure. It implies that the mental state (belief, pain, desire, etc.) do not exist, the words refer to them should be eliminated, and folk-psychology should be replaced with more successful scientific program such as neuroscience

 

5. Present the difficulty of reductive materialist approach

Multiple Realization thesis: Type identity theory asserts that the same type of mental state is identical to the same type of physical state. For instance, the statement “pain A is (means) brain state A” rejects the possibility that ‘pain A is (means) brain state B or another physical state C.’ However, human and octopus have experienced same pain even though they have different organic structure and different physical state when occurring pain.     

 

6. (1) Why does the Mary argument (knowledge) threaten physicalism (2) Which premise is weakest?

The Mary argument

(1) Mary knows all the physical facts about color without seeing any color.

(2) For Mary, it is possible to experience to see color and obtain new knowledge of the qualia (or subjective character) of color.

(3) Therefore, Mary can learn a new non-physical fact.

(4) Physicalism claims that every fact in the world is physical

(5) Therefore, Physicalism is wrong and cannot explain the mental state in a complete way.  

Critics challenges that premise (3) is fallacious by arguing that what Mary learned was not the knowledge of facts but some kind of ability. Specifically, Mary acquired the ability to imagine, recognize, and remember experiences of seeing color. Such abilities can only be acquired by having the experience.

 

7. Absent qualia argument (Chinese room) how absent qualia argument threaten and possible reply in terms of functionalism.

Absent qualia arguments show that it could be the case that a system that functionally duplicates the mental states of human being has no qualia. This threaten functionalism because it holds that individual qualia are identical its functional roles. Functionalist could argue that even if a system lacks the same qualia as a human, it might still have its own unique qualia associated with its functional process (inverted qualia arguments).