Brie Gertler, \"In Defense of Mind-Body Dualism\" In this selection Brie Gsrd et

Question

Brie Gertler, "In Defense of Mind-Body Dualism" In this selection Brie Gsrd et offers a provocative argument in favor of the thesis that minds are not 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 proceds 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 yoursell) as existing without any body. This is because, she argues, if one can conccive 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 fecling 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, Gstdet, 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

3. Correction: Option B. Identity situations entail that certain scenarios are impossible.

5. The correct answer is Option A. These are examples indicating that we can imagine that things that do not exist.

6. The correct answer is Option A. According to Gertler, water might have failed to be H2O.

7. The correct answer is Option D. According to Gertler, pain is not an example that should convince physicalists.

8. The correct answer is Option D. Mental causation contests the conclusion of the argument.

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