From: Rebeckah Wright
Subject: Thursday, October 10th, 2002 Dualist Viewpoints

Theories of Reality
Thursday, October 10th, 2002
Dualist Viewpoints

Announcements: study guide will be given
Tuesday, October 15th...exam can then be
taken Thursday, October 17th thru
Wednesday, October 23rd in Social Science
Computer & Testing Lab or any other lab
secured for testing purposes...no home-
work.


Viewpoints of Dualism
(predominant U.S. view)

1)Cartesian Interactionism: brain's an
interface between mind & body; they
interact
~Descartes theory- "The way we think &
speak about mind & body are totally
different, so they're different
substances."
~Descartes theorized that animals don't
have souls
? Do animals have souls?
-we could argue that thinking &
reasoning either does/does not
require soul

2)Epiphenomenalism: brain affects mind
only, not reverse; mind is result of
processes in brain
~analogy: think of connection 'tween gas
gauge & tank; occurrences in tank affects
gauge(thru wiring); bashing gauge(mind)
will not affect tank(brain), but
destroying tank will affect gauge
~consciousness(immaterial) is real, but
different from matter; solely determined
by material processes
~immaterial(mind) can't affect material
(body/brain)
i.e. pain...electrical impulses/firing
neurons in brain(real) CAUSES feeling of
pain(minds immaterial experience)
^says these are different things^
^can't occur in reverse^
~~~arguments against~~~
-mind over matter i.e. placebo effect,
comedy/musical healing, self-healing/
fire walking monks
-masochism i.e. pain is pleasure
-free will
-ideas/beliefs create real effects/
products in natural world i.e. inventions
/politics
-religious faith

3)Parallelism(occasionalism): mental &
physical are 2 separate occurrences,
(synchronized by Creator) running side by
side; never interacting
~analogy: think of movie & soundtrack; 2
separate things running 2gether, giving
illusion of image creating sound
~Creator set it up so it only LOOKS like
beings decide to do it then do it, but it
was pre-determined from the beginning
(?definite fate?)
~Leibnizs' theory...1 of 2 creators of
calculus...the very (ad hoc) existence of
(t)his theory shows how significant mind
/body interaction problem was to him


1) Cartesian Interactionism

body <---> mind (2 way interaction)

2) Epiphenominalism

body ----> mind (body influences mind)

3) Parallelism(occasionalism)

body / / mind (independent & in sync)