Introduction to Philosophy

Lecture III
Mind-Body Dualism — Part II
Dr. Daniel Kaufman

College of Continuing Education & The Extended University

Missouri State University
Lecture III Mind-Body Dualism — Part II
René Descartes' Mind-Body Dualism
1. Scientific Arguments for Dualism
1. Arguments from the nature of matter
2. Arguments from the comparison of human beings
with animals and machines
2.Epistemological Arguments for Dualism
(epistemology is the philosophical study of
knowledge)
Lecture III Mind-Body Dualism — Part II
Scientific Arguments for Dualism
Comparison with animals and machines
• Descartes impressed by mechanical devices,
made to look like people. Physical
movements can be performed by machines.
• This led Descartes to infer that human
physical movement could be explained in
purely mechanical terms.
Lecture III Mind-Body Dualism — Part II
Scientific Arguments for Dualism
Comparison with animals and machines
• Animals also have physical bodies like us.
Capable of many of the same physical activities.
• If one built a machine replica of an animal, one could
not tell that it was not the real thing, but if one built a
machine replica of a human being, one could tell that it
was not the real thing.
• Genuine language use is the sign that a creature is
capable of thought.
Lecture III Mind-Body Dualism — Part II
Scientific Arguments for Dualism
Comparison with animals and machines
• Animals also have physical bodies like us. Capable of many of
the same physical activities.
• Descartes draws a dualistic conclusion from these differences in
performance:
• Animals and machines may have identical bodies to human beings. They
share a number of abilities with human beings, which are due to these
common physical bodies.
• Human beings have one ability which animals and machines do not have:
genuine language use, which requires thought.
• Therefore, human beings must have a non-bodily element, which is
responsible for thought.
Lecture III Mind-Body Dualism — Part II
Scientific Arguments for Dualism
Comparison with animals and machines
The essential logic of Descartes' argument: If human beings
and animals have nearly identical bodies and if all
capacities are bodily capacities, then they should have
nearly identical capacities. But, human beings have
significant capacities that animals lack, namely language
and thought, which Descartes concludes that it must mean
that these are not bodily capacities, but capacities of a non-
physical mind.
Lecture III Mind-Body Dualism — Part II
Scientific Arguments for Dualism
Comparison with animals and machines: three
sources of weakness in Descartes' argument
• Descartes underestimates the physical differences between animals and human
beings. With respect to the brain, for example, they are not physically similar at
all. So, no conclusion regarding non-physical minds follows from the mere fact
that humans can think and use language and animals cannot.
• Descartes assumes that language and thought are all or nothing. He ignores the
possibility that they might be matters of degree.
• Descartes assumes that there will always be observable indications of thought.
• Current computer programs can simulate genuine conversation.
• Raises the question as to whether one can ever really know whether anyone is
thinking other than oneself.
Lecture III Mind-Body Dualism — Part II
Arguments from the Nature of Matter
Epistemological Argument for Dualism
• In the Meditations, Descartes' goes through a process of
systematically doubting everything he believes, in order to see
what is certain and what is not.
• One conclusion that he draws is that he can always doubt the
things that he believes on the basis of his senses.
• The senses can be unreliable, in the sense that they can misrepresent
reality.
• Dream experiences may be indistinguishable from real ones.
• No way to tell, at any given time, if what we are experiencing is really
there.
Lecture III Mind-Body Dualism — Part II
Arguments from the Nature of Matter
Epistemological Argument for Dualism
• Our belief that our bodies exist is based on our senses.
This belief can be doubted, for it is possible that we have
no bodies; indeed, that there is no physical world at all.
• Descartes also concludes that he cannot doubt that he is
thinking or that he exists, as a thinking being; a
consciousness. Because to doubt is to think.
• From this, he draws dualistic conclusions.
Lecture III Mind-Body Dualism — Part II
Arguments from the Nature of Matter
Weakness of the argument
Only shows that mental existence is necessary, while
bodily existence is contingent. It does not show
either that bodies do not exist or that minds are
non-physical entities.
Lecture III Mind-Body Dualism — Part II
Difficulties with Dualism
Dualism is no longer a viable view in secular
thought. It survives almost exclusively as a
religious doctrine.
• Dualism leaves it a mystery as to how the mind
and body interact.
• If dualism is true, then the mind is
unobservable. How, then, do we know anything
about the mind?
Lecture III Mind-Body Dualism — Part II
Difficulties with Dualism
Taken together, both arguments pose serious
problems for a scientific psychology:
• It becomes impossible to observe
mental/behavioral correlations and thus to
establish psychological laws.
• It becomes impossible to explain the mechanics
of mental/behavioral interaction.
• Leads to the "other minds" problem.
Lecture III Mind-Body Dualism — Part II
Next time: John Locke's theory of Personhood
and Personal Identity
Things to think about while you read:
• How is it possible for something to change and
yet retain its identity?
• What is the relevant, essential difference,
between a pile of dog parts and a dog?