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Section 2.4 Section 2.4

Section 2.4 - PowerPoint Presentation

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Section 2.4 - PPT Presentation

There Aint No Such Things as Ghosts Mind as Myth McGrawHill 2013 McGrawHill Companies All Rights Reserved 24 2 Eliminative Materialism According to eliminative materialism there are no mental states ID: 594592

mental states facts thought states mental thought facts physical eliminative explain zombie experiment demons behavior color creature station world

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Slide1

Section 2.4There Ain’t No SuchThings as Ghosts

Mind as Myth

McGraw-Hill

© 2013 McGraw-Hill Companies. All Rights Reserved.Slide2

2.4-2Eliminative Materialism

According to eliminative materialism, there are no mental states.

So reference to mental states should be eliminated from our theories of behavior.Mental states are to brains as demons are to disease; they are an illusion.Slide3

2.4-3Thought Experiment: Rorty’s Demons

Consider a tribe that believes that diseases are caused by demons.We don’t share that belief because we can explain diseases without appeal to demons.

Similarly, once we can explain behavior without appeal to mental states there will be no reason to believe they exist.Slide4

2.4-4Folk Psychology

Our common-sense theory of the mind that explains people’s behavior in terms of mental states like belief and desire.Eliminative materialists believe that once we know more about the brain, we will no longer need mental states to explain behavior.Slide5

2.4-5Thought Experiment:Searle’s Chevrolet Station Wagon

Physicists can explain much of reality without using folk concepts such as “golf club,” “tennis racket,” or “Chevrolet station wagon.”

But that doesn’t mean that golf clubs, tennis rackets, and Chevrolet station wagons don’t exist.Slide6

2.4-6Subjective Knowledge

Both reductive and eliminative materialism claim that we can provide a complete description of the world in purely physical terms.But would a complete knowledge of all the physical facts give us a complete knowledge of all the facts?Slide7

2.4-7Thought Experiment: Jackson’s Color-Challenged Scientist

Suppose Mary knows all the physical facts about vision, but has never seen a colored object.

Now suppose that she sees a colored object for the first time.Will she learn anything new? If so, it seems that physical facts are not the only facts about the world.Slide8

2.4-8Thought Probe: Seeing Color

Some people, such as Kevin Straight, are born only seeing black and white and then gain the ability to see in color.Kevin claims that he had no idea what color was before he received his lenses.

Does this real-world case bolster Jackson’s claim that qualia are not physical properties?Slide9

2.4-9Thought Experiment: Zombies

Chalmers claims that it’s possible for him to have a zombie twin, a creature physiologically and functionally identical to him, but lacking any conscious experience.Does this possibility show that consciousness is nonphysical?Slide10

2.4-10Thought Probe: Zombies

Could a zombie (a creature with no mental states) do everything that a normal human being can do?For example, could a zombie (a creature that has never experienced any emotions) recognize that a painting expresses sadness?

If not, could a zombie be functionally equivalent to us?