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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Private language argument as an argument against the self and so egosim
“The words of this language are to refer to what only the speaker can
know — to his immediate private sensations. So another person cannot
understand the language.”... Immediately after introducing ...
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Divided brain thought experiment: what is an analog of Born rule in biology? [closed]
Consider the following thoght experiment: your brain is divided in two and then each part is inserted in new body and regenerated (using future medicine), including all memories being restored. So, ...
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Is it even possible to know, from the outside, whether a physical system is conscious?
I take it for granted that other humans, and other higher animals like chimpanzees and dogs and cats, are conscious. But is it even possible to know, from the outside, whether a physical system is ...
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Does mind-body dualism entail supernaturalism?
The concept of mind-body dualism emphasizes a profound division between the mental and physical dimensions of human existence, positing the body as physical and the mind as non-physical. With this ...
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What would it be like for a person with no senses and no motor functions at all since birth?
As a sort of thought experiment trying to go to the farthest lengths of knowing oneself from the distractions of this world, I wanted to know what it would be like for a person that was born with none ...
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What would happen if I suddenly lost consciousness?
What would happen if I (my body) suddenly lost consciousness? Let's say a freak accident caused the part of my brain responsible for connecting/creating/hallucinating my "being", my ...
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Can individuality be copied? [closed]
Let's do a thought experiment, You are sleeping in a sensory deprivation tank 1, there is another tank next to you let's call it tank 2. Now there is a hypothetical machine M, which is a Universal 3-D ...
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Arguments for a Socratic Daimon and Embodiment: A Dialogue between an A-pneumatic and Pneumatic: Is this coherent? [closed]
Dear all, can you help me find any inconsistencies from theory of mind, philosophy of mind and phenomenology of percetion in this dialogue?
A conversation between an a-pneumatic and a pneumatic:
A-...
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What, if anything, is the flaw in SMBC's "happiness-3" comic?
Today's Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal raises in interesting philosophical issue.
The comic posits a machine that makes your life perfect and happy, and asks if people would get bored of this. The ...
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Should the failure to provide a naturalistic explanation for an event increase our credence in a supernatural one? An NDE case study
The question in the title, although meant to be general, is mainly motivated by a specific type of Near-Death Experience (NDE) that currently perplexes me. Specifically, I am referring to NDEs ...
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According to theories of embodiment, am I in all my body?
According to theories of embodiment, am I in all my body? Am I in my fingernails and teeth, even when I do not feel them? If I pick up a large stick, then am I in the stick, when I poke things with it?...
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How Can Computation Cause Consciousness?
The question of how consciousness arises and what, if any, effect it has on our behaviour is clearly both fascinating intellectually and of great practical and ethical significance. One very common ...
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Does the use of senses require any knowledge about what is sensed? [closed]
Does the use of any sense (hearing, sight, pitch, proprioception, heat/cold, pain) require any knowledge about what is sensed in order to be used effectively?
I phrased this poorly.
I really mean &...
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Is personhood different from personal identity?
I'm confused as to what the difference between these two terms are. Suppose that I am a cognitivist about personhood. Does this imply that higher order cognitive functions underwrite personal identity ...
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Methodologies for exploring philosophic assumptions in media?
I am interested in exploring the philosophic assumptions present in a video game I am currently enjoying, but I am struggling to find methodologies or works that could assist me in this endeavor.
I am ...
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I have seven steps to conclude a dualist reality. Which of these steps are considered controversial/wrong?
Step 1: We start by believing in the bare minimum : our own subjective experience exists. This is the only thing we know to exist. The existence of other things can only be inferred. And to deny your ...
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Why did phenomenalism fall out of favour in analytic philosophy?
Modern analytic philosophy proposes various reductionist projects to reduce phenomenal terms (like redness e.t.c) into physical terms (like neural-states, functional states e.t.c) such as for example, ...
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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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