Introduction to Philosophy

2 April 2001

I. Dualism—The Official Doctrine

A. A person has two parts or aspects: mind and body.

B. Body is physical; Mind is not physical

C. Differences supporting dualism

II. Ryle—The Ghost in the Machine

A. Category-errors (universities, class, team-spirit, average family, “flood of tears”)

B. Origin of category-error? Ryle: Para-mechanical response to scientific progress.

C. Two varieties of category error

1. Items from same category treated as if from different categories

2. Items from different categories treated as if from same category

III. Armstrong—Mind/Body Identity Theory

A. Methodological digression: “Why should we concede science a special authority to decide questions about the nature of man?”

1. Consensus

2. People “versed in the subject,” “the learned,” or “those who are competent.”

B. (Classical) Behaviorism

1. Mental states are simply the acts that we traditionally view as the expressions of those states.

2. Sometimes we don’t express our mental state.

C. Logical Behaviorism

1. Mental states are simply dispositions to produce the acts that we traditionally view as the expressions of those states.

2. Thinking is active; dispositions are static.

3. If we’re good actors, we might acquire all the same dispositions to behave as would be had by someone who really is in pain.

D. Mind/Brain Identity Theory

1. Mental states are those states that are apt for producing certain behaviors.

2. The states that are apt for producing certain behaviors, as it turns out, are brain states.

3. Therefore, mental states are brain states.