Brie Gertler, \"In Defense of Mind-Body Dualism\" ? offers a provocative argumen

Question

Brie Gertler, "In Defense of Mind-Body Dualism" ? offers a provocative argument in favor of the thesis that minds are not In this selection Brie Gerd physical. She contrasts this position with the physicalist theory that minds are identical to brains (or, more specifically, any mental state is identical with some brain state). Her argument proceeds by describing the strategy for demonstrating the possibility of non-physical mental states. She poses a thought experiment involving attempting to imagine or conceive of a particular pain (that you inflict on yourseli) as existing without any body. This is because, she argues, if one can conceive of something-in this example by imagining it-then that's good evidence that it's possible. She supports this idea with a number of examples. Gertler then goes on to defend her argument from a number of possible objections. Chief among m is the objection that there are cases in which one can conceive of something that is in fact impossible--particularly when it's discovered later to be impossible due to scientific progress. Gertler grants this but disputes the claim that these sorts of cases are analogous to her case of the feeling of pain since we can't be wrong about the feeling of pain. This is because our concept of pain is not one involving a hidden essence -to know that we are undergoing the feeling is enough to know that we're in pain. Finally, Gerdet considers two additional questions: how the dualist might answer the problem of mental causation and the problem of chauvinism that afflicts the identity theorist.

Explanation / Answer

1. The correct answer is Option C. According to the physicalist, mental states are all physical.

2. The correct answer is Option A. The identity theory states every type of mental state is the same as some type of physical state.

3. The correct answer is Option A. Identity statements concern what we should expect..

4. The correct answer is Option D. According to Gertler, if something is conceivable then it is conceptual.

Please post the other questions separately.

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