A phrenological mapping^[1] of the brain. Phrenology (from Greek: φρήν phrēn, "mind" and λόγος Logos, "knowledge" is a defunct field of study once The brain is the center of the Nervous system in animals All Vertebrates and the majority of Invertebrates have a brain Phrenology was among the first attempts to correlate mental functions with specific parts of the brain.

Dualism and monism are the two major schools of thought that attempt to resolve the mind-body problem. In Philosophy of mind, dualism is a set of views about the relationship between mind and matter which begins with the claim that mental phenomena are in some Monism is the metaphysical and Theological view that all is one that all reality is subsumed under the most fundamental category of being or existence Dualism can be traced back to Plato,^[2] Aristotle^[3][4][5] and the Sankhya and Yoga schools of Hindu philosophy,^[6] but it was most precisely formulated by René Descartes in the 17th century. Biography Early life Birth and family Plato was born in Athens Greece Aristotle (Greek Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC was a Greek philosopher a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. Sankhya, also Samkhya, ( सांख्य, IAST: sānkhya - 'enumeration' is one of the six schools of classical Indian philosophy. Yoga ( Sanskrit: योग, IAST: yóga, joːgə refers to traditional physical and mental disciplines originating in India, to the Hinduism is a religious tradition that originated in the Indian subcontinent. ^[7] Substance dualists argue that the mind is an independently existing substance, whereas Property dualists maintain that the mind is a group of independent properties that emerge from and cannot be reduced to the brain, but that it is not a distinct substance. In Philosophy of mind, dualism is a set of views about the relationship between mind and matter which begins with the claim that mental phenomena are in some Property dualism describes a category of positions in the Philosophy of mind which hold that while the world is constituted of just one kind of Substance - the physical In Philosophy, emergentism is the belief in Emergence, particularly as it involves Consciousness and the Philosophy of mind, and as it contrasts ^[8]

Monism is the position that mind and body are not ontologically distinct kinds of entities. Monism is the metaphysical and Theological view that all is one that all reality is subsumed under the most fundamental category of being or existence In Philosophy, ontology (from the Greek, genitive: of being (part This view was first advocated in Western Philosophy by Parmenides in the 5th century BC and was later espoused by the 17th century rationalist Baruch Spinoza. Western philosophy is a term that refers to philosophical thinking in the Western or Occidental world, as distinct from Eastern or Oriental philosophies Parmenides of Elea ( Greek:, early 5th century BC was an Ancient Greek Philosopher born in Elea, a Greek city on the southern coast of In Epistemology and in its broadest sense rationalism is "any view appealing to Reason as a source of knowledge or justification" (Lacey 286 Baruch or Benedict de Spinoza (ברוך שפינוזה Bento de Espinosa Benedictus de Spinoza ( November 24, 1632 – February 21, ^[9] Physicalists argue that only the entities postulated by physical theory exist, and that the mind will eventually be explained in terms of these entities as physical theory continues to evolve. Physicalism is a philosophical position holding that everything which exists is no more extensive than its Physical properties; that is that there are no kinds of things other Idealists maintain that the mind is all that exists and that the external world is either mental itself, or an illusion created by the mind. In Western civilization, Idealism is the philosophy which maintains that the Ultimate nature of reality is ideal or based upon ideas values essences The so-called Neutral monists adhere to the position that there is some other, neutral substance, and that both matter and mind are properties of this unknown substance. Neutral monism, in Philosophy, is the metaphysical view that Existence consists of one (hence Monism) primal substance which in itself is The most common monisms in the 20th and 21st centuries have all been variations of physicalism; these positions include behaviorism, the type identity theory, anomalous monism and functionalism. Behaviorism or Behaviourism, also called the learning perspective (where any physical action is a behavior is a philosophy of Psychology based on the Type physicalism (also known as Type Identity Theory, Mind-Brain Identity Theory and Identity Theory of Mind) is a theory in Philosophy of mind Anomalous monism is a philosophical thesis about the mind-body relationship. Functionalism is a theory of the mind in contemporary Philosophy, developed largely as an alternative to both the Identity theory of mind and Behaviourism ^[10]

Many modern philosophers of mind adopt either a reductive or non-reductive physicalist position, maintaining in their different ways that the mind is not something separate from the body. ^[10] These approaches have been particularly influential in the sciences, especially in the fields of sociobiology, computer science, evolutionary psychology and the various neurosciences. Sociobiology is a neo-Darwinian and Socialism Synthesis of Scientific disciplines that attempts to explain Social behavior Computer science (or computing science) is the study and the Science of the theoretical foundations of Information and Computation and their Evolutionary psychology ( EP) attempts to explain mental and psychological traits ��such as Memory, Perception, Neuroscience is a field devoted to the scientific study of the nervous system ^{[11][12][13][14]} Other philosophers, however, adopt a non-physicalist position which challenges the notion that the mind is a purely physical construct. Reductive physicalists assert that all mental states and properties will eventually be explained by scientific accounts of physiological processes and states. ^[15][16][17] Non-reductive physicalists argue that although the brain is all there is to the mind, the predicates and vocabulary used in mental descriptions and explanations are indispensable, and cannot be reduced to the language and lower-level explanations of physical science. ^[18][19] Continued neuroscientific progress has helped to clarify some of these issues. Neuroscience is a field devoted to the scientific study of the nervous system However, they are far from having been resolved, and modern philosophers of mind continue to ask how the subjective qualities and the intentionality (aboutness) of mental states and properties can be explained in naturalistic terms. ^[20][21]

The mind-body problem

Main article: Mind-body dichotomy

The mind-body problem concerns the explanation of the relationship that exists between minds, or mental processes, and bodily states or processes. The mind-body Dichotomy is the view that " mental " phenomena are in some respects "non- physical " (distinct from the Body MIND ( Moving In New Directions) (est 1975 is an alternative education high school in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. ^[22] One of the aims of philosophers who work in this area is to explain how a supposedly non-material mind can influence a material body and vice-versa.

Our perceptual experiences depend on stimuli which arrive at our various sensory organs from the external world and these stimuli cause changes in our mental states; ultimately causing us to feel a sensation, which may be pleasant or unpleasant. Stimulation is the action of various agents ( stimuli) on Muscles Nerves or a sensory end organ by which activity is evoked especially the nervous See also Sense A sensory system is a part of the Nervous system responsible for processing sensory information Someone's desire for a slice of pizza, for example, will tend to cause that person to move their body in a specific manner and in a specific direction to obtain what they want. The question, then, is how it can be possible for conscious experiences to arise out of a lump of gray matter endowed with nothing but electrochemical properties. ^[10] A related problem is to explain how someone's propositional attitudes (e. A propositional attitude is a relational mental state connecting a person to a Proposition. g. beliefs and desires) can cause that individual's neurons to fire and his muscles to contract in exactly the correct manner. Neurons (ˈnjuːɹɒn also known as neurones and nerve cells) are responsive cells in the Nervous system that process and transmit information These comprise some of the puzzles that have confronted epistemologists and philosophers of mind from at least the time of René Descartes. Epistemology (from Greek επιστήμη - episteme, "knowledge" + λόγος, " Logos " or theory of knowledge ^[7]

Dualist solutions to the mind-body problem

Dualism is a set of views about the relationship between mind and matter. In Philosophy of mind, dualism is a set of views about the relationship between mind and matter which begins with the claim that mental phenomena are in some MIND ( Moving In New Directions) (est 1975 is an alternative education high school in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Matter is commonly defined as being anything that has mass and that takes up space. It begins with the claim that mental phenomena are, in some respects, non-physical. A phenomenon (from Greek φαινόμενoν, pl φαινόμενα - phenomena) is any observable occurrence Nature, in the broadest sense is equivalent to the natural world, physical universe, material world or material universe. ^[8] One of the earliest known formulations of mind-body dualism was expressed in the eastern Sankhya and Yoga schools of Hindu philosophy (c. Sankhya, also Samkhya, ( सांख्य, IAST: sānkhya - 'enumeration' is one of the six schools of classical Indian philosophy. Yoga ( Sanskrit: योग, IAST: yóga, joːgə refers to traditional physical and mental disciplines originating in India, to the 650 BCE), which divided the world into purusha (mind/spirit) and prakrti (material substance). In Hinduism, Purusha ( Sanskrit puruṣa पुरुष "man Cosmic Man " in Sutra literature also called puṃs Prakrti or Prakriti (from Sanskrit language प्रकृ्रति prakṛti is according to Vedanta philosophy the basic matter of which the ^[6] Specifically, the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali presents an analytical approach to the nature of the mind. This is an article about the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali For general information on sutras see Sutra. Patañjali ( Devanāgarī पतञ्जलि (fl 150 BCE or 2nd c

In Western Philosophy, the earliest discussions of dualist ideas are in the writings of Plato and Aristotle. Western philosophy is a term that refers to philosophical thinking in the Western or Occidental world, as distinct from Eastern or Oriental philosophies Biography Early life Birth and family Plato was born in Athens Greece Aristotle (Greek Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC was a Greek philosopher a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. Each of these maintained, but for different reasons, that humans' "intelligence" (a faculty of the mind or soul) could not be identified with, or explained in terms of, their physical body. ^[2][3] However, the best-known version of dualism is due to René Descartes (1641), and holds that the mind is a non-extended, non-physical substance. ^[7] Descartes was the first to clearly identify the mind with consciousness and self-awareness, and to distinguish this from the brain, which was the seat of intelligence. Consciousness has been defined loosely as a constellation of attributes of Mind such as Subjectivity, Self-awareness, Sentience, and the Self-awareness is the concept that one exists as an individual separate from other people with private Thoughts. He was therefore the first to formulate the mind-body problem in the form in which it still exists today. ^[7]

Arguments for dualism

The main argument in favor of dualism is that it appeals to the common-sense intuition that conscious experience is distinct from inanimate matter. If asked what the mind is, the average person would usually respond by identifying it with their self, their personality, their soul, or some other such entity. The self is a key construct in several schools of Psychology, broadly referring to the cognitive representation of one's identity The soul, according to many religious and philosophical beliefs is the self-awareness, or Consciousness, unique to a particular living They would almost certainly deny that the mind simply is the brain, or vice-versa, finding the idea that there is just one ontological entity at play to be too mechanistic, or simply unintelligible. In Philosophy, ontology (from the Greek, genitive: of being (part ^[8] The majority of modern philosophers of mind think that these intuitions, like many others, are probably misleading and that we should use our critical faculties, along with empirical evidence from the sciences, to examine these assumptions to determine whether there is any real basis to them. ^[8]

Another important argument in favor of dualism is the idea that the mental and the physical seem to have quite different, and perhaps irreconcilable, properties. ^[23] Mental events have a certain subjective quality to them, whereas physical events do not. So, for example, one can reasonably ask what a burnt finger feels like, or what a blue sky looks like, or what nice music sounds like to a person. But it is meaningless, or at least odd, to ask what a surge in the uptake of glutamate in the dorsolateral portion of the hippocampus feels like. Glutamic acid (abbreviated as Glu or E) is one of the 20 Alpha Amino acids It is not among the human Essential amino acids Its The hippocampus is a part of the Forebrain, located in the medial Temporal lobe.

Philosophers of mind call the subjective aspects of mental events 'qualia' or 'raw feels'. " Qualia " (ˈkwɑːliə is "an unfamiliar term for something that could not be more familiar to each of us the ways things seem to us" ^[23] There is something that it is like to feel pain, to see a familiar shade of blue, and so on. There are qualia involved in these mental events that seem particularly difficult to reduce to anything physical. ^[24]

Interactionist dualism

Portrait of René Descartes by Frans Hals (1648)

Interactionist dualism, or simply interactionism, is the particular form of dualism first espoused by Descartes in the Meditations. Frans Hals (c 1580– August 26, 1666) was a Dutch Golden Age painter especially famous for portraiture. ^[7] In the 20th century, its major defenders have been Karl Popper and John Carew Eccles. Sir Karl Raimund Popper ( July 28 1902  &ndash September 17 1994) was an Austrian and British Philosopher and a professor Sir John Carew Eccles, AC FRS FRACP FRSNZ FAAS ( January 27, 1903 &ndash May 2, 1997 ^[25] It is the view that mental states, such as beliefs and desires, causally interact with physical states. ^[8]

Descartes' famous argument for this position can be summarized as follows: Seth has a clear and distinct idea of his mind as a thinking thing which has no spatial extension (i. e. , it cannot be measured in terms of length, weight, height, and so on). He also has a clear and distinct idea of his body as something that is spatially extended, subject to quantification and not able to think. It follows that mind and body are not identical because they have radically different properties. ^[7]

At the same time, however, it is clear that Seth's mental states (desires, beliefs, etc. ) have causal effects on his body and vice-versa: A child touches a hot stove (physical event) which causes pain (mental event) and makes her yell (physical event), this in turn provokes a sense of fear and protectiveness in the caregiver (mental event), and so on. Causality (but not causation) denotes a necessary relationship between one event (called cause and another event (called effect) which is the direct consequence

Descartes' argument crucially depends on the premise that what Seth believes to be "clear and distinct" ideas in his mind are necessarily true. Many contemporary philosophers doubt this. ^[26][27][28] For example, Joseph Agassi believes that several scientific discoveries made since the early 20th century have undermined the idea of privileged access to one's own ideas. Joseph Agassi (born in Jerusalem on May 7, 1927) is an Israeli academic with contributions in Logic, scientific method and Philosophy Freud has shown that a psychologically-trained observer can understand a person's unconscious motivations better than the person himself does. Sigmund Freud (ˈziːkmʊnt ˈfʁɔʏt born Sigismund Shlomo Freud (May 6 1856 &ndash September 23 1939 was an Austrian Psychiatrist who founded Duhem has shown that a philosopher of science can know a person's methods of discovery better than that person herself does, while Malinowski has shown that an anthropologist can know a person's customs and habits better than the person whose customs and habits they are. Pierre Maurice Marie Duhem ( 10 June 1861 – 14 September 1916) was a French physicist, mathematician and For the Olympic champion athlete see Bronisław Malinowski (athlete. He also asserts that modern psychological experiments that cause people to see things that are not there provide grounds for rejecting Descartes' argument, because scientists can describe a person's perceptions better than the person herself can. ^[29]

Other forms of dualism

Three varieties of dualism. The arrows indicate the direction of the causal interactions. Property dualism and Occasionalism are not shown.

Portrait of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz by Bernhard Christoph Francke (circa 1700)

1. Psychophysical parallelism, or simply parallelism, is the view that mind and body, while having distinct ontological statuses, do not causally influence one another. Psychophysical parallelism, in Psychology, is the Theory that the Conscious and nervous processes vary concomitantly whether or not there be Instead, they run along parallel paths (mind events causally interact with mind events and brain events causally interact with brain events) and only seem to influence each other. ^[30] This view was most prominently defended by Gottfried Leibniz. Although Leibniz was an ontological monist who believed that only one type of substance, the monad, exists in the universe, and that everything is reducible to it, he nonetheless maintained that there was an important distinction between "the mental" and "the physical" in terms of causation. He held that God had arranged things in advance so that minds and bodies would be in harmony with each other. This is known as the doctrine of pre-established harmony. Gottfried Leibniz 's theory of pre-established harmony is a philosophical theory about causation under which every "substance" only affects itself ^[31]
2. Occasionalism is the view espoused by Nicholas Malebranche which asserts that all supposedly causal relations between physical events, or between physical and mental events, are not really causal at all. Occasionalism is a philosophical theory about causation which says that created substances cannot be Efficient causes of events "Malebranche" redirects here For the fictional demons see Malebolge. While body and mind are different substances, causes (whether mental or physical) are related to their effects by an act of God's intervention on each specific occasion. ^[32]
3. Epiphenomenalism is a doctrine first formulated by Thomas Henry Huxley. In Philosophy of mind, epiphenomenalism, also known as ' Type-E Dualism ' is a view according to which some or all mental states are mere Epiphenomena Thomas Henry Huxley PC FRS (4 May 1825 – 29 June 1895 was an English Biologist, known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his advocacy ^[33] It consists in the view that mental phenomena are causally ineffectual. Physical events can cause other physical events and physical events can cause mental events, but mental events cannot cause anything, since they are just causally inert by-products (i. e. epiphenomena) of the physical world. ^[30] This view has been defended most strongly in recent times by Frank Jackson. Frank Cameron Jackson (born 1943 is an Australian philosopher currently Distinguished Professor and former Director ^[34]
4. Property dualism asserts that when matter is organized in the appropriate way (i. Property dualism describes a category of positions in the Philosophy of mind which hold that while the world is constituted of just one kind of Substance - the physical e. in the way that living human bodies are organized), mental properties emerge. Hence, it is a sub-branch of emergent materialism. In the Philosophy of mind, emergent (or emergentist) materialism is a theory which asserts that the Mind is an irreducible existent in some sense ^[8] These emergent properties have an independent ontological status and cannot be reduced to, or explained in terms of, the physical substrate from which they emerge. This position is espoused by David Chalmers and has undergone something of a renaissance in recent years. David John Chalmers (born April 20, 1966) is a Philosopher in the area of Philosophy of mind. ^[35]

Monist solutions to the mind-body problem

In contrast to dualism, monism states that there are no fundamental divisions. Dualism denotes a state of two parts The word's origin is the Latin duo, "two". Monism is the metaphysical and Theological view that all is one that all reality is subsumed under the most fundamental category of being or existence Today, the most common forms of monism in Western philosophy are physicalist. Physicalism is a philosophical position holding that everything which exists is no more extensive than its Physical properties; that is that there are no kinds of things other ^[10] Physicalistic monism asserts that the only existing substance is physical, in some sense of that term to be clarified by our best science. ^[36] However, a variety of formulations (see below) are possible. Another form of monism, idealism, states that the only existing substance is mental. In Western civilization, Idealism is the philosophy which maintains that the Ultimate nature of reality is ideal or based upon ideas values essences The so-called Although pure idealism, such as that of George Berkeley, is uncommon in contemporary Western philosophy, a more sophisticated variant called panpsychism, according to which mental experience and properties may be at the foundation of physical experience and properties, has been espoused by some philosophers such as William Seager. George Berkeley (ˈbɑrkli (12 March 1685 14 January 1753 also known as Bishop Berkeley, was a Philosopher. Panpsychism, in Philosophy, is either the view that all parts of matter involve mind or the more holistic view that the whole universe is an organism that possesses ^[35]

Phenomenalism is the theory that representations (or sense data) of external objects are all that exist. In Epistemology and the Philosophy of perception, phenomenalism is the view that physical objects do not exist as things in themselves but only as perceptual The concept of sense data (singular sense datum) is very influential and widely used in the Philosophy of perception. Such a view was briefly adopted by Bertrand Russell and many of the logical positivists during the early 20th century. Bertrand Arthur William Russell 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970 was a British Philosopher, Historian Logical positivism (later and more accurately called logical empiricism) is a school of philosophy that combines Empiricism, the idea that observational evidence is ^[37] A third possibility is to accept the existence of a basic substance which is neither physical nor mental. The mental and physical would then both be properties of this neutral substance. Such a position was adopted by Baruch Spinoza^[9] and was popularized by Ernst Mach^[38] in the 19th century. Baruch or Benedict de Spinoza (ברוך שפינוזה Bento de Espinosa Benedictus de Spinoza ( November 24, 1632 – February 21, Ernst Mach (max ( February 18, 1838 &ndash February 19, 1916) was an Austrian Physicist and Philosopher and This neutral monism, as it is called, resembles property dualism. Neutral monism, in Philosophy, is the metaphysical view that Existence consists of one (hence Monism) primal substance which in itself is

Physicalistic monisms

Behaviorism

Main article: Behaviorism

Behaviorism dominated philosophy of mind for much of the 20th century, especially the first half. Behaviorism or Behaviourism, also called the learning perspective (where any physical action is a behavior is a philosophy of Psychology based on the ^[10] In psychology, behaviorism developed as a reaction to the inadequacies of introspectionism. Introspection is the self-observation and reporting of Conscious inner Thoughts desires and Sensations It is a conscious mental and usually ^[36] Introspective reports on one's own interior mental life are not subject to careful examination for accuracy and can not be used to form predictive generalizations. Without generalizability and the possibility of third-person examination, the behaviorists argued, psychology cannot be scientific. ^[36] The way out, therefore, was to eliminate the idea of an interior mental life (and hence an ontologically independent mind) altogether and focus instead on the description of observable behavior. ^[39]

Parallel to these developments in psychology, a philosophical behaviorism (sometimes called logical behaviorism) was developed. ^[36] This is characterized by a strong verificationism, which generally considers unverifiable statements about interior mental life senseless. A verificationist is someone who adheres to the verification principle proposed by A For the behaviorist, mental states are not interior states on which one can make introspective reports. They are just descriptions of behavior or dispositions to behave in certain ways, made by third parties to explain and predict others' behavior. A disposition is a habit, a preparation a state of readiness or a tendency to act in a specified way ^[40]

Philosophical behaviorism, notably held by Wittgenstein, has fallen out of favor since the latter half of the 20th century, coinciding with the rise of cognitivism. ^[22] Cognitivists reject behaviorism due to several perceived problems. For example, behaviorism could be said to be counter-intuitive when it maintains that someone is talking about behavior in the event that a person is experiencing a painful headache.

Identity theory

Main article: Type physicalism

Type physicalism (or type-identity theory) was developed by John Smart^[17] and Ullin Place^[41] as a direct reaction to the failure of behaviorism. Type physicalism (also known as Type Identity Theory, Mind-Brain Identity Theory and Identity Theory of Mind) is a theory in Philosophy of mind John Jamieson Carswell "Jack" Smart AC (born 1920 often referred to as J Ullin Place (1924 – 2000 was a British philosopher and psychologist These philosophers reasoned that, if mental states are something material, but not behavior, then mental states are probably identical to internal states of the brain. In very simplified terms: a mental state M is nothing other than brain state B. The mental state "desire for a cup of coffee" would thus be nothing more than the "firing of certain neurons in certain brain regions". ^[17]

The classic Identity theory and Anomalous Monism in contrast. For the Identity theory, every token instantiation of a single mental type corresponds (as indicated by the arrows) to a physical token of a single physical type. For anomalous monism, the token-token correspondences can fall outside of the type-type correspondences. The result is token identity.

Despite its initial plausibility, the identity theory faces a strong challenge in the form of the thesis of multiple realizability, first formulated by Hilary Putnam. Multiple realizability, in Philosophy of mind, is the thesis that the same mental property state or event can be implemented by different physical properties states Hilary Whitehall Putnam (born July 31 1926 is an American Philosopher who has been a central figure in Western philosophy since the 1960s especially in Philosophy ^[19] It is obvious that not only humans, but many different species of animal can, for example, experience pain. However, it seems highly unlikely that all of these diverse organisms with the same pain experience are in the same identical brain state. And if the latter is the case, then pain cannot be identical to a specific brain state. The identity theory is thus empirically unfounded. ^[19]

On the other hand, even granted all above, it does not follow that identity theories of all types must be abandoned. According to token identity theories, the fact that a certain brain state is connected with only one mental state of a person does not have to mean that there is an absolute correlation between types of mental states and types of brain state. The type-token distinction can be illustrated by a simple example: the word "green" contains four types of letters (g, r, e, n) with two tokens (occurrences) of the letter e along with one each of the others. The idea of token identity is that only particular occurrences of mental events are identical with particular occurrences or tokenings of physical events. ^[42] Anomalous monism (see below) and most other non-reductive physicalisms are token-identity theories. ^[43] Despite these problems, there is a renewed interest in the type identity theory today, primarily due to the influence of Jaegwon Kim. Jaegwon Kim (born 1934 in Daegu, Korea (now in South Korea) is a Korean born American Philosopher currently working at ^[17]

Functionalism

Main article: Functionalism (philosophy of mind)

Functionalism was formulated by Hilary Putnam and Jerry Fodor as a reaction to the inadequacies of the identity theory. Functionalism is a theory of the mind in contemporary Philosophy, developed largely as an alternative to both the Identity theory of mind and Behaviourism Hilary Whitehall Putnam (born July 31 1926 is an American Philosopher who has been a central figure in Western philosophy since the 1960s especially in Philosophy Jerry Alan Fodor (born 1935 in New York City, New York) is an American philosopher and cognitive scientist. ^[19] Putnam and Fodor saw mental states in terms of an empirical computational theory of the mind. In philosophy, the computational theory of mind is the view that the human Mind is best conceived as an Information processing system and that ^[44] At about the same time or slightly after, D.M. Armstrong and David Kellogg Lewis formulated a version of functionalism which analyzed the mental concepts of folk psychology in terms of functional roles. David Malet Armstrong (born July 8, 1926) often D M Armstrong, is an Australian Philosopher. David Kellogg Lewis ( September 28, 1941  &ndash October 14, 2001) is considered to have been one of the leading philosophers of the latter ^[45] Finally, Wittgenstein's idea of meaning as use led to a version of functionalism as a theory of meaning, further developed by Wilfrid Sellars and Gilbert Harman. Wilfrid Stalker Sellars ( May 20, 1912 - July 2, 1989) was an American philosopher Gilbert Harman (born 1938 is a contemporary American Philosopher, teaching at Princeton University, who has published widely on Ethics, Another one, psychofunctionalism, is an approach adopted by naturalistic Philosophy of Mind associated with Jerry Fodor and Zenon Pylyshyn. Functionalism is a theory of the mind in contemporary Philosophy, developed largely as an alternative to both the Identity theory of mind and Behaviourism Philosophical naturalism has been described in various ways In its broadest and strongest sense naturalism is the metaphysical position that "nature is all there is Jerry Alan Fodor (born 1935 in New York City, New York) is an American philosopher and cognitive scientist. Zenon Pylyshyn (born 1937) is a Canadian Cognitive scientist and Philosopher.

What all these different varieties of functionalism share in common is the thesis that mental states are characterized by their causal relations with other mental states and with sensory inputs and behavioral outputs. That is, functionalism abstracts away from the details of the physical implementation of a mental state by characterizing it in terms of non-mental functional properties. For example, a kidney is characterized scientifically by its functional role in filtering blood and maintaining certain chemical balances. From this point of view, it does not really matter whether the kidney be made up of organic tissue, plastic nanotubes or silicon chips: it is the role that it plays and its relations to other organs that define it as a kidney. ^[44]

Nonreductive physicalism

Main article: Anomalous Monism

Many philosophers hold firmly to two essential convictions with regard to mind-body relations: 1) Physicalism is true and mental states must be physical states, but 2) All reductionist proposals are unsatisfactory: mental states cannot be reduced to behavior, brain states or functional states. Anomalous monism is a philosophical thesis about the mind-body relationship. ^[36] Hence, the question arises whether there can still be a non-reductive physicalism. Donald Davidson's anomalous monism^[18] is an attempt to formulate such a physicalism. Donald Herbert Davidson ( March 6, 1917  &ndash August 30, 2003) was an American Philosopher, who served as Slusser Anomalous monism is a philosophical thesis about the mind-body relationship.

A basic idea which all non-reductive physicalists share in common is the thesis of supervenience: mental states supervene on physical states, but are not reducible to them. In Philosophy, supervenience is a kind of dependency relationship typically held to obtain between Sets of properties. "Supervenience" therefore describes a functional dependence: there can be no change in the mental without some change in the physical. ^[46]

Emergentism

Main article: Emergentism

Emergentism is a form of "nonreductive physicalism" that involves a layered view of nature, with the layers arranged in terms of increasing complexity and each corresponding to its own special science. In Philosophy, emergentism is the belief in Emergence, particularly as it involves Consciousness and the Philosophy of mind, and as it contrasts Some philosophers hold that emergent properties causally interact with more fundamental levels, while others maintain that higher-order properties simply supervene over lower levels without direct causal interaction. The latter group therefore holds a stricter definition of emergentism, which can be rigorously stated as follows: a property P of composite object O is emergent if it is metaphysically possible for another object to lack property P even if that object is composed of parts with intrinsic properties identical to those in O and has those parts in an identical configuration.

Sometimes emergentist use the example of water having a new property when Hydrogen H and Oxygen O combine to form H20 (water). In this example there "emerges" a new property of a transparent liquid that would not have been predicted by understanding hydrogen and oxygen as a gas, but physicists would claim that they could predict outcome of these two elements combining so it may not be the best of examples. But such is to be a similar case with physical properties of the brain giving rise to a mental state. Emergentists try to solve the notorious mind-body gap this way. One problem for emergentism is the idea "causal closure" in the world that does not allow for a mind-to-body causation. ^[47]

Eliminative materialism

Main article: Eliminative materialism

If one is a materialist but believes that not all aspects of our common sense psychology will find reduction to a mature cognitive-neuroscience, and that a non-reductive materialism is mistaken, then one can adopt a final, more radical position: eliminative materialism. Eliminative materialism (also called eliminativism) is a materialist position in the Philosophy of mind.

There are several varieties of eliminative materialism, but all maintain that our common-sense "folk psychology" badly misrepresents the nature of some aspect of cognition. Folk psychology (also known as common sense psychology naϊve psychology or vernacular psychology is a set of assumptions constructs and convictions about everyday behaviors of ourselves and others Eliminativists regard folk psychology as a falsifiable theory, and one likely to be falsified by future cognitive-neuroscientific research. Should better theories of the mental come along they argue, we might need to discard certain basic common-sense mental notions that we have always taken for granted, such as belief, consciousness, emotion, qualia, or propositional attitudes. Belief is the psychological state in which an individual holds a Proposition or Premise to be true Consciousness has been defined loosely as a constellation of attributes of Mind such as Subjectivity, Self-awareness, Sentience, and the An emotion is a mental and physiological state associated with a wide variety of feelings thoughts and behaviours " Qualia " (ˈkwɑːliə is "an unfamiliar term for something that could not be more familiar to each of us the ways things seem to us" A propositional attitude is a relational mental state connecting a person to a Proposition.

Eliminativists such as Patricia and Paul Churchland argue that while folk psychology treats cognition as fundamentally sentence-like, the non-linguistic vector/matrix model of neural network theory or connectionism will prove to be a much more accurate account of how the brain works. Patricia Smith Churchland (born July 16, 1943 in Oliver British Columbia, Canada) is a Canadian-American Philosopher working at the Paul Churchland is a philosopher noted for his studies in Neurophilosophy and the Philosophy of mind. Connectionism is an approach in the fields of Artificial intelligence, Cognitive psychology / Cognitive science, Neuroscience and Philosophy ^[15]

The Churchlands often invoke the fate of other, erroneous popular theories and ontologies which have arisen in the course of history. In Philosophy, ontology (from the Greek, genitive: of being (part ^[15][16] For example, Ptolemaic astronomy served to explain and roughly predict the motions of the planets for centuries, but eventually this model of the solar system was eliminated in favor of the Copernican model. The Churchlands believe the same eliminative fate awaits the "sentence-cruncher" model of the mind in which thought and behavior are the result of manipulating sentence-like states called "propositional attitudes. A propositional attitude is a relational mental state connecting a person to a Proposition. "

Linguistic criticism of the mind-body problem

Each attempt to answer the mind-body problem encounters substantial problems. Some philosophers argue that this is because there is an underlying conceptual confusion. ^[48] These philosophers, such as Ludwig Wittgenstein and his followers in the tradition of linguistic criticism, therefore reject the problem as illusory. ^[49] They argue that it is an error to ask how mental and biological states fit together. Rather it should simply be accepted that human experience can be described in different ways - for instance, in a mental and in a biological vocabulary. Illusory problems arise if one tries to describe the one in terms of the other's vocabulary or if the mental vocabulary is used in the wrong contexts. ^[49] This is the case, for instance, if one searches for mental states of the brain. The brain is simply the wrong context for the use of mental vocabulary - the search for mental states of the brain is therefore a category error or a sort of fallacy of reasoning. A category mistake, or category error, is a Semantic or ontological error by which a property is ascribed to a thing that could not possibly have that property ^[49]

Today, such a position is often adopted by interpreters of Wittgenstein such as Peter Hacker. Peter Michael Stephan Hacker (born 15 July[[ 939]] in London is a British philosopher ^[48] However, Hilary Putnam, the inventor of functionalism, has also adopted the position that the mind-body problem is an illusory problem which should be dissolved according to the manner of Wittgenstein. Hilary Whitehall Putnam (born July 31 1926 is an American Philosopher who has been a central figure in Western philosophy since the 1960s especially in Philosophy ^[50]

Naturalism and its problems

The thesis of physicalism is that the mind is part of the material (or physical) world. Such a position faces the problem that the mind has certain properties that no other material thing seems to possess. Physicalism must therefore explain how it is possible that these properties can nonetheless emerge from a material thing. The project of providing such an explanation is often referred to as the "naturalization of the mental. Philosophical naturalism has been described in various ways In its broadest and strongest sense naturalism is the metaphysical position that "nature is all there is "^[36] Some of the crucial problems that this project attempts to resolve include the existence of qualia and the nature of intentionality. ^[36]

Qualia

Main article: Qualia

Many mental states have the property of being experienced subjectively in different ways by different individuals. " Qualia " (ˈkwɑːliə is "an unfamiliar term for something that could not be more familiar to each of us the ways things seem to us" ^[24] For example, it is characteristic of the mental state of pain that it hurts. Moreover, your sensation of pain may not be identical to mine, since we have no way of measuring how much something hurts nor of describing exactly how it feels to hurt. Philosophers and scientists ask where these experiences come from. Nothing indicates that a neural or functional state can be accompanied by such a pain experience. Often the point is formulated as follows: the existence of cerebral events, in and of themselves, cannot explain why they are accompanied by these corresponding qualitative experiences. The puzzle of why many cerebral processes occur with an accompanying experiential aspect in consciousness seems impossible to explain. ^[23]

Yet it also seems to many that science will eventually have to explain such experiences. ^[36] This follows from the logic of reductive explanations. If I try to explain a phenomenon reductively (e. g. , water), I also have to explain why the phenomenon has all of the properties that it has (e. g. , fluidity, transparency). Viscosity is a measure of the resistance of a Fluid which is being deformed by either Shear stress or Extensional stress. ^[36] In the case of mental states, this means that there needs to be an explanation of why they have the property of being experienced in a certain way.

The problem of explaining the introspective, first-person aspects of mental states, and consciousness in general, in terms of third-person quantitative neuroscience is called the explanatory gap. The basic idea of the explanatory gap is that human experience (such as Qualia) cannot be fully explained by mechanical processes that something extra perhaps even of a different ^[51] There are several different views of the nature of this gap among contemporary philosophers of mind. David Chalmers and the early Frank Jackson interpret the gap as ontological in nature; that is, they maintain that qualia can never be explained by science because physicalism is false. David John Chalmers (born April 20, 1966) is a Philosopher in the area of Philosophy of mind. Frank Jackson may refer to Frank Cameron Jackson (born 1943 a professor of philosophy at the Australian National University Frank Lawson In Philosophy, ontology (from the Greek, genitive: of being (part There are two separate categories involved and one cannot be reduced to the other. ^[52] An alternative view is taken by philosophers such as Thomas Nagel and Colin McGinn. Thomas Nagel (born July 4 1937 is an American Philosopher, currently University Professor and Professor of Philosophy and Law Colin McGinn (born March 10, 1950) is a British Philosopher currently working at the University of Miami. According to them, the gap is epistemological in nature. Epistemology (from Greek επιστήμη - episteme, "knowledge" + λόγος, " Logos " or theory of knowledge For Nagel, science is not yet able to explain subjective experience because it has not yet arrived at the level or kind of knowledge that is required. We are not even able to formulate the problem coherently. ^[24] For McGinn, on other hand, the problem is one of permanent and inherent biological limitations. We are not able to resolve the explanatory gap because the realm of subjective experiences is cognitively closed to us in the same manner that quantum physics is cognitively closed to elephants. ^[53] Other philosophers liquidate the gap as purely a semantic problem.

Intentionality

Main article: Intentionality

John Searle - one of the most influential philosophers of mind, proponent of biological naturalism (Berkeley 2002)

Intentionality is the capacity of mental states to be directed towards (about) or be in relation with something in the external world. The term intentionality is often simplistically summarised as "aboutness" John Rogers Searle (born July 31 1932 in Denver Colorado) is an American Philosopher and the Slusser Professor of Philosophy at the University Biological naturalism is a monist theory about the relationship between Mind and Body (i The term intentionality is often simplistically summarised as "aboutness" ^[21] This property of mental states entails that they have contents and semantic referents and can therefore be assigned truth values. Semantics is the study of meaning in communication The word derives from Greek σημαντικός ( semantikos) "significant" from When one tries to reduce these states to natural processes there arises a problem: natural processes are not true or false, they simply happen. ^[54] It would not make any sense to say that a natural process is true or false. But mental ideas or judgments are true or false, so how then can mental states (ideas or judgments) be natural processes? The possibility of assigning semantic value to ideas must mean that such ideas are about facts. Thus, for example, the idea that Herodotus was a historian refers to Herodotus and to the fact that he was an historian. Herodotus of Halicarnassus ( Greek: Hēródotos Halikarnāsseús) was a Greek Historian who lived in the 5th century BC ( 484 BC&ndash If the fact is true, then the idea is true; otherwise, it is false. But where does this relation come from? In the brain, there are only electrochemical processes and these seem not to have anything to do with Herodotus. ^[20]

Philosophy of mind and science

Humans are corporeal beings and, as such, they are subject to examination and description by the natural sciences. Since mental processes are not independent of bodily processes, the descriptions that the natural sciences furnish of human beings play an important role in the philosophy of mind. ^[22] There are many scientific disciplines that study processes related to the mental. The list of such sciences includes: biology, computer science, cognitive science, cybernetics, linguistics, medicine, pharmacology, and psychology. Foundations of modern biology There are five unifying principles Computer science (or computing science) is the study and the Science of the theoretical foundations of Information and Computation and their Cognitive science may be broadly defined as the multidisciplinary study of mind and behavior Cybernetics is the interdisciplinary study of the Structure of Complex systems especially Communication processes control mechanisms and Feedback Linguistics is the scientific study of Language, encompassing a number of sub-fields Medicine is the art and science of healing It encompasses a range of Health care practices evolved to maintain and restore Human Health by the Pharmacology (from Greek grc φάρμακον pharmakon, "drug" and grc -λογία -logia) is the study of how Drugs Psychology (from Greek grc ψῡχή psȳkhē, "breath life soul" and grc -λογία -logia) is an Academic and ^[55]

Neurobiology

Main article: Neurobiology

The theoretical background of biology, as is the case with modern natural sciences in general, is fundamentally materialistic. Neurobiology is the study of cells of the Nervous system and the organization of these cells into functional circuits that process information and mediate behavior In Science, the term natural science refers to a naturalistic approach to the study of the Universe, which is understood as obeying rules or law of The objects of study are, in the first place, physical processes, which are considered to be the foundations of mental activity and behavior. ^[56] The increasing success of biology in the explanation of mental phenomena can be seen by the absence of any empirical refutation of its fundamental presupposition: "there can be no change in the mental states of a person without a change in brain states. "^[55]

Within the field of neurobiology, there are many subdisciplines which are concerned with the relations between mental and physical states and processes:^[56] Sensory neurophysiology investigates the relation between the processes of perception and stimulation. Neurobiology is the study of cells of the Nervous system and the organization of these cells into functional circuits that process information and mediate behavior Neurophysiology (from Greek grc νεῦρον neuron, "nerve" grc φύσις physis, "nature origin" and grc -λογία In Psychology and the Cognitive sciences perception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of sensory Information. Stimulation is the action of various agents ( stimuli) on Muscles Nerves or a sensory end organ by which activity is evoked especially the nervous ^[57] Cognitive neuroscience studies the correlations between mental processes and neural processes. Cognitive neuroscience is an academic field concerned with the scientific study of biological substrate underlying Cognition, with a specific focus on the neural substrates ^[57] Neuropsychology describes the dependence of mental faculties on specific anatomical regions of the brain. Neuropsychology is the applied scientific discipline that studies the structure and function of the Brain related to specific psychological processes and overt behaviors ^[57] Lastly, evolutionary biology studies the origins and development of the human nervous system and, in as much as this is the basis of the mind, also describes the ontogenetic and phylogenetic development of mental phenomena beginning from their most primitive stages. Evolutionary biology is a sub-field of Biology concerned with the origin of Species from a Common descent, and Descent of species Ontogeny, as opposed to Phylogeny, refers to the history of an organism from birth as opposed to its genetic makeup ^[55]

Since the 1980s, sophisticated neuroimaging procedures, such as fMRI (above), have furnished increasing knowledge about the workings of the human brain, shedding light on ancient philosophical problems. Neuroimaging includes the use of various techniques to either directly or indirectly image the structure, function/ Pharmacology of the Brain Functional MRI or functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI is a type of specialized MRI scan

The methodological breakthroughs of the neurosciences, in particular the introduction of high-tech neuroimaging procedures, has propelled scientists toward the elaboration of increasingly ambitious research programs: one of the main goals is to describe and comprehend the neural processes which correspond to mental functions (see: neural correlate). Methodology (also called manner) is defined as "the analysis of the principles of methods rules and postulates employed by a discipline" Neuroimaging includes the use of various techniques to either directly or indirectly image the structure, function/ Pharmacology of the Brain A neural correlate of a content of experience is any bodily component such as an electro-neuro-biological state or the state assumed by some biophysical subsystem ^[56] Several groups are inspired by these advances. New approaches to this question are being pursued by Steven Ericsson-Zenith at the Institute for Advanced Science & Engineering, where they propose a new mechanics for devices called 'machines that experience', designed to implement sentience and the fundament mechanisms of motility and recognition. Steven Ericsson-Zenith, born July 6th 1966 is a British /American Computer scientist. The stated objective of the Institute for Advanced Science and Engineering is "the explanation of experience in nature Jeff Hawkins has established the Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience at Berkeley, where they explore biomimicry for recognition algorithms. Jeff Hawkins (born June 1, 1957 in Huntington New York) is the founder of Palm Computing (where he invented the Palm Pilot)

Computer science

Main article: Computer science

Computer science concerns itself with the automatic processing of information (or at least with physical systems of symbols to which information is assigned) by means of such things as computers. Computer science (or computing science) is the study and the Science of the theoretical foundations of Information and Computation and their Information as a concept has a diversity of meanings from everyday usage to technical settings A computer is a Machine that manipulates data according to a list of instructions. ^[58] From the beginning, computer programmers have been able to develop programs which permit computers to carry out tasks for which organic beings need a mind. A programmer is someone who writes Computer software. The term computer programmer can refer to a specialist in one area of computer programming or to a generalist A simple example is multiplication. But it is clear that computers do not use a mind to multiply. Could they, someday, come to have what we call a mind? This question has been propelled into the forefront of much philosophical debate because of investigations in the field of artificial intelligence.

Within AI, it is common to distinguish between a modest research program and a more ambitious one: this distinction was coined by John Searle in terms of a weak AI and strong AI. John Rogers Searle (born July 31 1932 in Denver Colorado) is an American Philosopher and the Slusser Professor of Philosophy at the University ethics of artificial intelligence The philosophy of artificial intelligence considers the relationship between machines and thought and attempts to answer such The exclusive objective of "weak AI", according to Searle, is the successful simulation of mental states, with no attempt to make computers become conscious or aware, etc. The objective of strong AI, on the contrary, is a computer with consciousness similar to that of human beings. ^[59] The program of strong AI goes back to one of the pioneers of computation Alan Turing. Alan Mathison Turing, OBE, FRS (ˈt(jʊ(ərɪŋ (23 June 1912 &ndash 7 June 1954 was an English Mathematician As an answer to the question "Can computers think?", he formulated the famous Turing test. The Turing test is a proposal for a test of a Machine 's ability to demonstrate intelligence ^[60] Turing believed that a computer could be said to "think" when, if placed in a room by itself next to another room which contained a human being and with the same questions being asked of both the computer and the human being by a third party human being, the computer's responses turned out to be indistinguishable from those of the human. Essentially, Turing's view of machine intelligence followed the behaviourist model of the mind - intelligence is as intelligence does. The Turing test has received many criticisms, among which the most famous is probably the Chinese room thought experiment formulated by Searle. Philosophy of artificial intelligence The Chinese Room argument comprises a Thought experiment and associated Arguments by John Searle, who attempts A thought experiment (from the German Gedankenexperiment) is a proposal for an Experiment that would test a Hypothesis or Theory ^[59]

The question about the possible sensitivity (qualia) of computers or robots still remains open. " Qualia " (ˈkwɑːliə is "an unfamiliar term for something that could not be more familiar to each of us the ways things seem to us" Some computer scientists believe that the specialty of AI can still make new contributions to the resolution of the "mind body problem". They suggest that based on the reciprocal influences between software and hardware that takes place in all computers, it is possible that someday theories can be discovered that help us to understand the reciprocal influences between the human mind and the brain (wetware). For the Rudy Rucker novel see Wetware (novel The term wetware is used to describe the Embodiment of the concepts of the physical ^[61]

Psychology

Main article: Psychology

Psychology is the science that investigates mental states directly. Psychology (from Greek grc ψῡχή psȳkhē, "breath life soul" and grc -λογία -logia) is an Academic and It uses generally empirical methods to investigate concrete mental states like joy, fear or obsessions. Fear is an Emotional response to Threats and Danger. It is a basic survival mechanism occurring in response to a specific Stimulus, such as Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD is a Chronic Anxiety disorder most commonly characterized by obsessive Distressing Intrusive thoughts Psychology investigates the laws that bind these mental states to each other or with inputs and outputs to the human organism. Input is the term denoting either an entrance or changes which are inserted into a System and which activate/modify a Process. Output is the term denoting either an exit or changes which exit a System and which activate/modify a Process. ^[62]

An example of this is the psychology of perception. In Psychology and the Cognitive sciences perception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of sensory Information. Scientists working in this field have discovered general principles of the perception of forms. A law of the psychology of forms says that objects that move in the same direction are perceived as related to each other. ^[55] This law describes a relation between visual input and mental perceptual states. However, it does not suggest anything about the nature of perceptual states. The laws discovered by psychology are compatible with all the answers to the mind-body problem already described.

Philosophy of mind in the continental tradition

Most of the discussion in this article has focused on the predominant style or tradition of philosophy in modern Western culture, usually called analytic philosophy (sometimes described as Anglo-American philosophy). Analytic philosophy (sometimes analytical philosophy) is a generic term for a style of Philosophy that came to dominate English-speaking countries in the 20th century Analytic philosophy (sometimes analytical philosophy) is a generic term for a style of Philosophy that came to dominate English-speaking countries in the 20th century ^[63] Other schools of thought exist, however, which are sometimes subsumed under the broad label of continental philosophy. Continental philosophy, in contemporary usage refers to a set of traditions of 19th and 20th century philosophy from mainland Europe ^[63] In any case, the various schools that fall under this label (phenomenology, existentialism, etc. Existentialism is a philosophical doctrine which posits that individuals create the meaning and essence of their lives and that this essence follows from their existence ) tend to differ from the analytic school in that they focus less on language and logical analysis and more on directly understanding human existence and experience. With reference specifically to the discussion of the mind, this tends to translate into attempts to grasp the concepts of thought and perceptual experience in some direct sense that does not involve the analysis of linguistic forms. Thought and thinking are mental forms and Processes respectively ("thought" is both Experience as a general concept comprises Knowledge of or skill in or Observation of some thing or some event gained through involvement in or ^[63]

In Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's Phenomenology of Mind, Hegel discusses three distinct types of mind: the subjective mind, the mind of an individual; the objective mind, the mind of society and of the State; and the Absolute mind, a unity of all concepts. See also Hegel's Philosophy of Mind from his Encyclopedia. ^[64]

In modern times, the two main schools that have developed in response or opposition to this Hegelian tradition are phenomenology and existentialism. Existentialism is a philosophical doctrine which posits that individuals create the meaning and essence of their lives and that this essence follows from their existence Phenomenology, founded by Edmund Husserl, focuses on the contents of the human mind (see noema) and how phenomenological processes shape our experiences. Edmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl (ˈhʊsɛrl April 8 1859 – April 26 1938) was a philosopher, known as the father of Noema (plural noemata) is Greek for the meaning of something It is the mental equivalent of a schema or Schematic of something ^[65] Existentialism, a school of thought founded upon the work of Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche, focuses on the content of experiences and how the mind deals with such experiences. Søren Aabye Kierkegaard (ˈsœːɐn ˈkʰiɐ̯kəˌɡ̊ɒˀ in Danish Anglicized as;) Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (October 15 1844 August 25 1900 ( was a nineteenth-century German philosopher and classical philologist

An important, though not very well known, example of a philosopher of mind and cognitive scientist who tries to synthesize ideas from both traditions is Ron McClamrock. Ronald Albert McClamrock, usually known as Ron McClamrock, is an associate professor of philosophy at the University at Albany The State University of New York. Borrowing from Herbert Simon and also influenced by the ideas of existential phenomenologists such as Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Martin Heidegger, McClamrock suggests that humans' condition of being-in-the-world ("Dasein", "In-der-welt-sein") makes it impossible for them to understand themselves by abstracting away from it and examining it as if it were a detached experimental object of which they themselves are not an integral part. Herbert Alexander Simon ( June 15, 1916 February 9, 2001) was an American Political scientist whose research ranged Existential phenomenology is a philosophical current inspired by Martin Heidegger 's work Sein und Zeit (1927 Maurice Merleau-Ponty (mɔʁis mɛʁlopɔ̃ti in French March 14, 1908 – May 3, 1961) was a French phenomenological Martin Heidegger ( September 26, 1889 &ndash May 26, 1976) (ˈmaɐ̯tiːn ˈhaɪ̯dɛgɐ was an influential German philosopher ^[66]

Consequences of philosophy of mind

There are countless subjects that are affected by the ideas developed in the philosophy of mind. Clear examples of this are the nature of death and its definitive character, the nature of emotion, of perception and of memory. Death is the termination of the biological functions that define living Organisms It refers both to a specific An emotion is a mental and physiological state associated with a wide variety of feelings thoughts and behaviours In Psychology and the Cognitive sciences perception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of sensory Information. In Psychology, memory is an organism's ability to store retain and subsequently retrieve information Questions about what a person is and what his or her identity consists of also have much to do with the philosophy of mind. The term person is used in Common sense to mean an individual Human being. There are two subjects that, in connection with the philosophy of the mind, have aroused special attention: free will and the self. The question of free will Self is broadly defined as the essential qualities that make a person distinct from all others ^[22]

Free will

Main article: Free will

In the context of philosophy of mind, the problem of free will takes on renewed intensity. The question of free will This is certainly the case, at least, for materialistic determinists. Determinism is the philosophical Proposition that every event including human cognition and behaviour decision and action is causally determined ^[22] According to this position, natural laws completely determine the course of the material world. Mental states, and therefore the will as well, would be material states, which means human behavior and decisions would be completely determined by natural laws. Some take this reasoning a step further: people cannot determine by themselves what they want and what they do. Consequently, they are not free. ^[67]

This argumentation is rejected, on the one hand, by the compatibilists. For other uses of each of these words see Compatibility. Compatibilism is the belief that Free will and Determinism are Those who adopt this position suggest that the question "Are we free?" can only be answered once we have determined what the term "free" means. The opposite of "free" is not "caused" but "compelled" or "coerced". It is not appropriate to identify freedom with indetermination. A free act is one where the agent could have done otherwise if it had chosen otherwise. In this sense a person can be free even though determinism is true. ^[67] The most important compatibilist in the history of the philosophy was David Hume. David Hume (26 April 1711 25 August 1776 Scottish Philosopher, Economist, and Historian is an important figure in Western philosophy ^[68] More recently, this position is defended, for example, by Daniel Dennett,^[69] and, from a dual-aspect perspective, by Max Velmans. Daniel Clement Dennett (born March 28 1942 in Boston, Massachusetts) is a prominent American philosopher whose research Max Velmans is a Professor of Psychology at Goldsmiths University of London. ^[70]

On the other hand, there are also many incompatibilists who reject the argument because they believe that the will is free in a stronger sense called libertarianism. For other uses of each of these words see Compatibility. Compatibilism is the belief that Free will and Determinism are Libertarianism is a philosophical position in Metaphysics with respect to Free will and Determinism. ^[67] These philosophers affirm that the course of the world is not completely determined by natural laws: the will at least does not have to be and, therefore, it is potentially free. Critics of this position accuse the incompatibilists of using an incoherent concept of freedom. They argue as follows: if our will is not determined by anything, then we desire what we desire by pure chance. And if what we desire is purely accidental, we are not free. So if our will is not determined by anything, we are not free. ^[67]

The self

Main article: Self

The philosophy of mind also has important consequences for the concept of self. Self is broadly defined as the essential qualities that make a person distinct from all others Self is broadly defined as the essential qualities that make a person distinct from all others If by "self" or "I" one refers to an essential, immutable nucleus of the person, most modern philosophers of mind will affirm that no such thing exists. ^[71] The idea of a self as an immutable essential nucleus derives from the idea of an immaterial soul. The soul, according to many religious and philosophical beliefs is the self-awareness, or Consciousness, unique to a particular living Such an idea is unacceptable to most contemporary philosophers, due to their physicalistic orientations, and due to a general acceptance among philosophers of the scepticism of the concept of 'self' by David Hume, who could never catch himself doing, thinking or feeling anything. David Hume (26 April 1711 25 August 1776 Scottish Philosopher, Economist, and Historian is an important figure in Western philosophy ^[72] However, in the light of empirical results from developmental psychology, developmental biology and neuroscience, the idea of an essential inconstant, material nucleus - an integrated representational system distributed over changing patterns of synaptic connections - seems reasonable. Developmental Biology is the official journal of the Society for Developmental Biology. Neuroscience is a field devoted to the scientific study of the nervous system ^[73] The view of the self as an illusion is widely accepted by many philosophers, such as Daniel Dennett and Thomas Metzinger. Daniel Clement Dennett (born March 28 1942 in Boston, Massachusetts) is a prominent American philosopher whose research Thomas Metzinger (born March 12, 1958) is a German Philosopher.

Notes and references

Further reading

• Wikibooks: Consciousness Studies
• The London Philosophy Study Guide offers many suggestions on what to read, depending on the student's familiarity with the subject: Philosophy of Mind
• Richard Rorty, Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature (Princeton, 1980), p. Richard McKay Rorty (October 4 1931 - June 8 2007 was an American Philosopher. Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature ( 1979) is a famous and controversial work by American philosopher Richard Rorty. 120, 125.
• Alfred North Whitehead Science and the Modern World (1925; reprinted London, 1985), pp. Alfred North Whitehead, OM ( February 15 1861, Ramsgate, Kent, England &ndash December 30 1947, 68–70.
• Edwin Burtt The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Physical Science, 2nd ed. (London, 1932), pp. 318-19.
• Felix Deutsch (ed. ) On the Mysterious Leap from the Mind to the Body (New York, 1959).
• Herbert Feigl The "Mental" and the "Physical": The Essay and a Postscript (1967), in H. Herbert Feigl ( December 14, 1902 &ndash June 1, 1988) was an Austrian Philosopher Feigl et al. , (eds. ), Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science (Minneapolis, 1958), Vol. 2, pp. 370–497, at p. 373.
• Celia Green The Lost Cause: Causation and the Mind-Body Problem. Celia Elizabeth Green (born 26 November 1935 in East Ham, London) is a British writer on Philosophical skepticism, twentieth-century (Oxford: Oxford Forum, 2003). Applies a sceptical view on causality to the problems of interactionism. Causality (but not causation) denotes a necessary relationship between one event (called cause and another event (called effect) which is the direct consequence
• Gregory Bateson Steps Towards an Ecology of Mind"
• Oliver Elbs Neuro-Esthetics: Mapological foundations and applications (Map 2003) (Munich: 2005 - for the problem of mappings, map-makers, and maps in general). Gregory Bateson ( 9 May 1904 – 4 July 1980) was a British anthropologist, social scientist, linguist

See also

• Immanuel Kant
• Franz Brentano

External links

• Guide to Philosophy of Mind, compiled by David Chalmers. Immanuel Kant (ɪmanuəl kant 22 April 1724 12 February 1804 was an 18th-century German Philosopher from the Prussian city of Königsberg Franz Clemens Honoratus Hermann Brentano (January 16 1838 &ndash March 17 1917 was an influential German philosopher and psychologist whose influence
• MindPapers: A Bibliography of the Philosophy of Mind and the Science of Consciousness, compiled by David Chalmers (Editor) & David Bourget (Assistant Editor).
• Dictionary of Philosophy of Mind, edited by Chris Eliasmith.
• An Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind, by Paul Newall, aimed at beginners.
• A list of online papers on consciousness and philosophy of mind, compiled by David Chalmers
• Field guide to the Philosophy of Mind
• [1] podcast of David Papineau interviewed on Physicalism