Chapter 4 Essay Questions

Philosophy of Mind: The Mind-Body Problem

36. René Descartes: Substance Dualism

  1. On Descartes’s view, can we ever know that other minds exist? Why or why not?
  2. How does Descartes use the notion of divisibility to argue that the mind exists independently from the body?

37. Gilbert Ryle: Exorcising Descartes’s “Ghost in the Machine”

  1. What is the category mistake that the official doctrine is said to make?
  2. According to Ryle, what is the origin of the official doctrine’s category mistake?

38. J.P. Moreland: A Contemporary Defense of Dualism

  1. What reasons does Moreland give for rejecting physicalism?
  2. What reasons does Moreland provide for rejecting epiphenomenalism?

39. Paul Churchland: On Functionalism and Materialism

  1. What are the main arguments against the identity theory?
  2. What is the “inverted-spectrum thought experiment”? What does it purport to show?

40. J.J.C. Smart: Sensations and Brain Processes

  1. What is Smart’s argument for the identity theory? What is the weakest premise? Why?
  2. What counterargument can be made against Smart’s position?

41. Thomas Nagel: What Is It Like to Be a Bat?

  1. What point is Nagel trying to make with the bat example?
  2. How does the nature of subjective experience count against reductive theories of mind?

42. Jerry A. Fodor: The Mind–Body Problem

  1. What reasons does Fodor give for preferring functionalism over competing theories?
  2. Why does Fodor prefer functionalism over the identity theory?

43. David Chalmers: Property Dualism

  1. How does property dualism differ from traditional substance dualism?
  2. What is property dualism? Does it reject materialism? Does it posit a ghost in the machine?

44. John Searle: Minds, Brains, and Computers

  1. Why does Searle say that strong AI is false?
  2. What is the Chinese room thought experiment? What does it purport to show about strong AI?

45. Ned Block: Troubles with Functionalism

  1. What is the Chinese nation argument? Are you persuaded by it? Why or why not?
  2. What are some of the objections to the Chinese nation scenario that Block considers? Do any of these convince you that the Chinese nation argument is mistaken? Explain.

46. John Locke: Our Psychological Properties Define the Self

  1. What is the point of Locke’s thought experiment about the prince and the cobbler?
  2. According to Locke, how is memory involved in the notion of personal identity?

47. David Hume: We Have No Substantial Self with Which We Are Identical

  1. Do you agree with Hume that “self” is merely a stream of consciousness and not a substance or distinct entity? Explain.
  2. What is Hume’s argument for the nonexistence of the self?
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