Questions tagged [mind-body]
The mind–body problem is the problem of explaining how our mental states, events and processes—like beliefs, actions and thinking—are related to the physical states,events and processes in our bodies, given that the human body is a physical entity and the mind is non-physical.
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Seeking Help on Cartesian Dualism and the Mind-Body Relationship
I'm currently studying philosophy and I'm struggling with the concept of Cartesian dualism, particularly in relation to other theories about the mind-body relationship. I'm wondering if anyone here ...
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Difference between mental states and mental events?
What is the main difference between mental states and mental events in philosophy of mind? I heard from a lecturer that mental events are those entities which occur instantly or in short period of ...
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Why is mind interacting with matter any more problematic than matter interacting with matter?
So there's this supposedly an 'interaction' problem for substance dualism, that isn't there for physicalism or idealism. I've never understood this.
So as Hume pointed out, we see event a followed by ...
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What happens to statements like cause must precede effect for the mental events for this model?
My understanding is that for this model (epiphenomenalism (?)) is there isn't mental causation rather a kind of mapping between physical and mental events?
What happens to statements like cause must ...
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What is this idea of causality being articulated?
So I wanted to ask about the kind of causality when someone says something of the sort: "Communism made these people destroy their own society" or "I have a brilliant idea now I will ...
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What are the main arguments that emergence-based theories of consciousness can't solve the hard problem of consciousness?
Ever since reading Douglas Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher, Bach as a teenager I've been fascinated by the idea that consciousness is an emergent property of physical systems. Roughly the claim is that ...
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Can the laws of physics rule out disembodied minds?
In this article, philosopher Evan Fales argues that the laws of physics establish that disembodied minds (such as an immaterial God, for example) could not influence the physical world. Is it true?
(...
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Which arguments support Dualism as the best view of the human person?
If you had to choose between Dualism, Physicalism, and Hylomorphism, which one do you think is more likely to be accurate and why?
I think Dualism is the most plausible, but that might be because I am ...
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What is the difference between control exerted by an agent and causation?
I have my own thoughts about this. Am I on the right track or is there some real philosophy that defines the concept of control differently?
In a regular cause & effect scenario the cause ...
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Can minds be uploaded in computers?
The idea runs around of loading minds up in computers. It's a recurring theme in SF culture and thought about the technological possibilities in the future. We can read on Wikipedia:
Mind uploading, ...
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Does the possession of mind imply sentience and vice versa?
Definitions
I'm aware that there are differences in usage for 'sentience', 'consciousness', and 'awareness' as broadly covered (PhilSE)
So:
This question considers 'sentience' as the ability to have ...
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Implications of Cartesian Psychophysical Dualism for free-will and determinism
For Descartes, reality consists of two fundamental substances: the mental, and the physical.
The mental substance is distinct from the physical substance in that it is not bound by the deterministic, ...
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Critique of those missing the Hard Problem?
From everything I've ever seen about the “Hard Problem of Consciousness”, the issue is that materialists and physicalists presume a different question and answer that one instead.
I feel like the two ...
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What is a good representation of the mind body problem in TV or film?
I am participating in a local conversation group, and I have briefly studied the mind body problem as a philosophy minor in college many moons ago. I wasn't sure if this question was best for sci-fi, ...
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Can you think a teleporter kills the 'real' you, and also be a physicalist?
I'm taking philosophy as a senior subject in high school, so my depth of understanding of pretty much any philosophical theory is very limited. I think I side more with a physicalist account of the ...
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Is a physical process identical to an algorithm computing it?
I have read three questions about algorithms and their relation to the human brain.
Two recent ones:
Question on Godel's Remark on Algorithmic Nature of Mind
and:
Why doesn't Searle's ...
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Is peripheral attention an example of the intentionality of consciousness?
Suppose I fix my gaze on an object, say a flower. Without moving my eyes, keeping them fixed on the flower, so with the same exact visual experience, I can "direct my attention" towards ...
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What is the core problem of intentionality?
In the philosophy of mind, I have read that "intentionality" is a difficult thing to explain in a naturalistic fashion. But I don't necessarily see the heart of the problem in the same way ...
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Can i take computer as example for mind and body problem? Also conscious?
Software being mind,
Hardware being body
Finally software provides the conscious to the machine
Is there any better way to explain 12 years old kid?
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How do philosophers transfer ideas into words?
I was contemplating reality as a simulation when I had a eureka thought. The thought (or idea) is how the simulation creator and the simulated relate to each other. It came to me all in a flash, but ...
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What is the dichotomy called when being implicitly 'without' when one says to look 'within', and what does it mean?
I think the phrase 'Look within' is used often in the context of meditation. If someone can actually perform the act of looking within, it implicitly means that someone is currently 'without', and ...
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Can Thomas Nagel be considered an epiphenomenalist?
Regarding the mind-body-problem, Thomas Nagel argues against both materialism and ontological dualism, presenting a view which revolves around subjective phenomena (individualism).
Could these ...
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Are Epicurean 'pleasures of mind' clearly stated as being of a unique or universal nature?
I read that Epicurean 'pleasures of body' are unique to each individual. i.e. each person experiences the "pleasures of the body" in a different way.
I wondered whether Epicurean 'pleasures ...
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Is there an existing assessment to determine a person's stance on the nature of mind, cognition, consciousness, etc.?
There are a lot of different theories about the nature of consciousness, cognition, and the mind. I'm looking for a set of questions that a person could answer that would then give them some kind of ...
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Is living with constant mindfulness necessarily good? or does it limit one's potential? [closed]
Isn't mindfulness is difficult for a thinker which usually philosophers are?
Mindfulness by definition is bringing awareness to present moment non judgmentally and I agree it may relax you. I believe ...
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What is the difference between the spiritual and the metaphysical
According to this (old) page, metaphysics is the study of things beyond anything humans can perceive. Because of this fact, metaphysics is relatively faith-based discipline and, compared to science, ...
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What is a dualists response to Sean Carroll’s QFT objection to souls?
https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/blog/2011/05/23/physics-and-the-immortality-of-the-soul/
He argues that given the universe operates on QFT, we would need to create new physics to account for ...
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Methods for telling how another creature is feeling
Assuming that there are different "beings" in this world, and that those beings have something like "emotions" (those are two big pills to swallow, I know), how do you tell whether a particular being ...
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If my body is cloned down to the state of each particle, in which body does my consciousness persist? [duplicate]
I have always had this thought experiment that troubled me. If I could clone my body and my mind down to the exact molecules and atoms (which means there are two of my bodies that are exactly the same,...
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Is dualism unlikely because the mind is inextricable in its activity from matter?
I've been thinking about dualism lately, but one thing that deals a pretty strong blow to this view in my mind is that it implies that the mind can exist apart from physical reality (an immaterial ...
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Reverse epiphenomenalism and recursion?
Let's say for a moment that the mind is of unknown substance, and that the state of a particular brain region is emergent from it. That is certain states of the mind will cause certain states of this ...
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What is the argument posed by Katherine Hayles in "The Condition of Virtuality" as to the relation between matter and virtuality and why?
I am learning in class of the influence new media have on old-aged dichotomies such as matter-mind, subject-object and their like. Our new-media teacher asked us to read the paper "The condition ...
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Does our experience with habits lead us to believe in free will?
Notoriously intractable, free will have had no success in being proven physically. Even phenomenally it is difficult to pin down precisely. So why do people believe each other when claiming that they ...
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According to physics, do our visual thoughts (possibly others) appear to be not real because they occupy physically inaccessible higher dimensions?
I wanted to know how physics explain the mind.I will first share my thoughts on whether thoughts are real or that the mind is real (Mind is the arena where we have thoughts).
I think we usually ...
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Has any philosopher discussed pre-cognitive or pre-linguistic conceptualization?
To get an idea of what I'm talking about one may pay close attention to their own thought process. It may become evident that one can gain awareness of certain conceptual assemblages. If awareness at ...
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Did consciousness always exist?
Speaking of Stuart Hameroff and Sir Roger Penrose:
"Both of them now believe that consciousness, as the interplay of
fine-scale quantum events, may have always existed in the universe."
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How does Descartes argue that mind and body are different substances if mind can exist without a body?
How does Descartes argue that mind and body are different substances if mind can exist without a body? I think he does this in meditation II
Descartes’ argument so far is that minds can exist ...
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How to make sense of minds of others? [closed]
I've asked a question about the criteria for existence, but here I want to focus on a particular aspect. What does it mean If I say: Bob has a mind - Bob's mind exists - Bob is not a philosophical ...
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How does Chalmers' "hard problem" differ from the "mind-body problem"?
They both seem be be asking how neurological processes can give rise to consciousness. Is there a real difference between the two questions, or is one just a reformulation of the other?
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Do human thoughts interact with matter? [closed]
In a Dan Brown book, the author claims that thoughts can interact with matter, and the entire field of study associated with this is called "Noetic Sciences".
Is this actually true? What is the ...
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Do all arguments against mind-body identity theory assume that every pain is the same?
I don’t get (any of) the arguments against mind-brain identity theories.
It’s usually argued that multiple realisability kills MBIT (see also this post). In a talk I attended it was stated as ...
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Is there an argument against physicalism on the grounds that the view would make what we call a subjective experience astronomically unlikely?
If we assume that physcialism is true and all that there is, then we can safely assume that what we think of as subjective experience and consciousness, is driven by the atoms in our brain and the ...
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Is there a world behind you when you do not look behind your back? [closed]
There is a very famous philosophical question that almost all of us have heard before:
If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?
My question is a little ...
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Can science prove or provide evidence that the brain is the source of the mind
I am seeking published discussions or arguments about this proposition, though some discussion here would be useful:
Science can prove or provide significant evidence that the brain is the
source ...
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Is God's disembodiment problematic?
I understand that most (though not all) Christians believe that God is disembodied.
God cannot be corporeal because that would preclude his being eternal,
immutable, and simple, for example.
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What feelings are unique to humans?
What differentiates humans from machines? We feel. We want to feel pleasure and to abstain from pain. Now, I can build (with a little help of my friends) a machine that will alert/make sound whenever ...
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Can mind-body dualism be modelled by computer programs and their corresponding logic gates at the physical level?
If we a consider complex computer program (such as an operating system) running on an unknown architecture, then somebody observing the computer program at the logic gate level may be able to gain a ...
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For interactionist dualism, what is the mechanism that allows the mind to interact with the body?
I've looked everywhere for this answer but still can't find anything. If the mind and body are separate substances how can the mind interact with the body? What's the mechanism for the interaction?
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Does Descartes explain or define how the sensation mechanism works?
Especially in Meditation 2, Descartes uses "sense", "sensation" many times when he argues for the mind-body distinction. But does he explain the sensation mechanism?
I wonder this because it seems to ...
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Are there many minds or is there only one?
"If a lion could speak, we cannot understand it" - Ludwig Wittgenstein
Machines vs Chaos of Human Language
Mathematical Consensus
Is a proof still valid if only the author understands it?
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