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    The Cartesian theory of mind rests on a category mistake ... — Carmelics
    Home/Philosophy of Language
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    The Cartesian theory of mind rests on a category mistake and its apparent problems can be dissolved rather than solved

    Consciousness & MindPhilosophy of Language
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    2 reasons for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

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    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.Wittgenstein's private language argument shows that a purely inner mental realm with its own intrinsic properties is conceptually incoherent.
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    • 2.If inner mental states cannot be individuated without public behavioral criteria, Cartesian substance dualism presupposes a logically impossible ontology.
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    • 3.Ryle's dissolution strategy is thus not merely deflationary but follows from the positive thesis that mental vocabulary is criterially tied to observable dispositions.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
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    • 1.Sellars's critique of the 'Myth of the Given' demonstrates that raw introspective episodes cannot serve as epistemically foundational without conceptual mediation.
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    • 2.Cartesian privileged access to a private mental theater requires precisely this kind of unmediated givenness, which Sellars shows is a category confusion between causal and justificatory relations.
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    • 3.Therefore, the apparent explanatory gap between mind and body is generated by illicitly treating 'knowing one's own states' as a categorically different act from knowledge governed by public norms.
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    Reasons Against

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    Reason against
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    • 1.Mental concepts such as believing, knowing, aspiring, and detesting are dispositional, not acts or processes
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    • 2.The Cartesian theory represents mental concepts as covert, unobservable acts or processes
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    • 3.Misrepresenting the logical category of an expression generates pseudo-problems rather than genuine philosophical puzzles
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    Topics

    Philosophy of LanguageConsciousness & Mind

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    Related

    Cartesian privileged access to a private mental theater requires precisely this ...If inner mental states cannot be individuated without public behavioral criteria...Mental concepts such as believing, knowing, aspiring, and detesting are disposit...Misrepresenting the logical category of an expression generates pseudo-problems ...
    +5 moreShow less
    Ryle's dissolution strategy is thus not merely deflationary but follows from the...Sellars's critique of the 'Myth of the Given' demonstrates that raw introspectiv...The Cartesian theory represents mental concepts as covert, unobservable acts or ...Therefore, the apparent explanatory gap between mind and body is generated by il...Wittgenstein's private language argument shows that a purely inner mental realm ...

    Similar

    A correct theory of mind should not reduce mental states to bodily beh...80%The Cartesian theory represents mental concepts as covert, unobservabl...80%Therefore, the source of error that undermines imagination as a guide ...79%A correct theory of mind should tie types of mental states conceptuall...79%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: categories
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    Most famously, Ryle (1949) introduced the idea of the category mistake as a way of dispelling the confusions he thought to be rampant in the Cartesian theory of the mind, and thus of dissolving many apparent problems in philosophy of mind. According to Ryle, one makes a category mistake when one mistakes the logical type or category of a certain expression (1949, 16–17). Thus, e.g., a foreigner would make a category mistake if he observed the various colleges, libraries, and administrative offic
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    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (2 for, 1 against)
    Edits
    1 edit