What am I?

What am I?

This section of the course presents 6 different approaches to the question of how the brain/body is related to the mind. It starts with the position outlined in Descartes philosophy, that understands the mind and body as  completely separate material and spiritual entities. The first modern theory of mind considered is behaviourism, which take the complete opposite position, entirely denying the existence of the soul or mind as an separate independent entity as an illusion. Two more contemporary physicalists approaches to the mind body issue considered are mind-brain identity theory and functionalism. Mind Brain identity theory argues that the mind and its mental states can be directly identified with the activity of the brain, whereas functionalism argues that the matter which realises consciousness processes is irrelevant, that mental states essential feature is their functional role.  Property Dualism presents a modern non-physicalist approach to the mind body problem, arguing that mental states are irreducible to physical states and that therefore it is likely that a better understanding of our physical world will show that on it’s most fundamental level it has both physical and mental properties. Eliminative materialism, the last physicalist theory considered, takes a dia-metrically opposed view, arguing, similarly to behaviourism that our theory of the mind is a deeply mistaken illusion. Eliminative material claims that the ‘folk theory’ of the mind is stagnant and lacking explanatory power, thus we should look to advances in neuroscience to give us our concepts of mental life instead of relying on supplanted folk theories of intentional conscious states. 

Behaviourism