Essay On Cartesian Dualism

As regards materialism, the downside of this doctrine is that when materialists attempt to reduce the mental realm to the physical by saying that mental experiences are brain processes, they deny the existence of consciousness, sometimes called ‘qualia’, which is nevertheless a subjective aspect of mental experiences. According to Dualism, having different properties is not the only difference between Mental and Physical realms, a third difference between the two as mentioned earlier is qualitative. Mental happenings have subjective qualities such as what it feels like, looks like or sounds like. Descartes' view claims that material properties could never produce something as perplexing as consciousness or awareness, because such qualities

could be obtained only from a non-material sort of reality. Although both mental and physical properties are of a single substance, qualities of conscious experiences are neither identical with nor reducible to something physical. However, the Identity Theory denies the existence of such irreducible non-physical properties. Furthermore, regardless of whether the mental can be reduced to the physical or vice versa, there are still two very distinct phenomena. In the physical sense, there is a universe and as for the mental it accounts for our awareness of the universe. Even if our ideas are essentially the result of purely physical (brain) processes, we still have two separate phenomena that do not resemble one another. It is for this reason that I feel Descartes is credited for his (dualistic) framework of mind and body as existing separately. Although it is arguable how the two distinct entities interact if they exist independently from one another, the study of their relationship to one another is a valid subject of philosophical inquiry to some extent and it may well be the best that can be done for dualism in the philosophy of mind. While some refute Dualism, their counter arguments are reliant upon an anti-supernatural hypothesis. The philosophical perspective of Dualism is strong if one believes that the world is not limited to materialism and that there is the possibility of the supernatural or immortality of the soul. However, Cartesian Dualism’s connection with the claim that God exists – even though no concrete evidence of His existence has been provided – alone is the strongest evidence against Dualism. Sober furthers this proof by arguing that as science progressed, we have learnt through the discovery of molecular biology that atoms, which compose organisms are the same as the molecules of which non-living matter is made. Matter (atoms and molecules are composed of matter) regardless of how different it appears due to its different modifications, it remain matter nonetheless. As it has been scientifically proven that everything that is composed on earth is made of matter, this argument is plausible.

In addition to Sober’s discussion of progress in science, when we look at earlier centuries of human knowledge, we find that the dualistic theory of mind is no more accurate than the Greek’s theory of lightning bolts; it is as sound as the Greek’s claiming that lightning bolts are a result of Zeus’s anger; both ignorant.

Scientifically, it has been established that lightning is an electrical discharge. Science was able to show that a phenomenon, which previously seemed to defy physical description can now be understood within the framework of the law of physics. According to the Identity Theory, the scientific discovery that lightning is the same thing as an electrical discharge is an a posteriori truth that could be found only by observation and experiment. Unlike Cartesian Dualism, in this theory, there is the advantage of testability. For instance, the brain can be seen and examined through scientific/medical experiment; it is possible to make one experience certain mental states and see which part of their brain lights up. Hence, the strength of Identity Theory rests in its testability. So far, we have seen that the Identity Theory has argued for its solution to the mind/body problem by describing progress that science has made; it also predicts that science is yet to reveal what exactly is this physical sate which is identical with those of

mental.