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    The mind-brain identity theory is preferable to dualism — Carmelics
    Home/Consciousness & Mind
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    The mind-brain identity theory is preferable to dualism

    Consciousness & Mind
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    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.The identity theory and dualism explain the same empirical data
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    • 2.The dualist explanation involves more ontology than the identity theory explanation
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    • 3.Parsimony favors explanations with less ontological commitment
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Phenomenal consciousness involves qualitative properties (qualia) that are not captured by any functional or physical description.
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    • 2.If qualia are real but not reducible to physical properties, then the identity theory fails to explain a genuine feature of mind.
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    • 3.An explanatory framework that leaves out real features of its domain is not preferable, regardless of its parsimony.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Multiple realizability shows that mental states can be instantiated by physically distinct substrates across species and systems.
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    • 2.If mental state types cannot be systematically identified with brain state types, then type-identity theory is false as a general account of mind.
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    • 3.A dualist ontology that preserves the autonomy of mental kinds may better accommodate the actual generality of psychological explanation than a reductive identity theory.
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    Consciousness & Mind

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    Related

    A dualist ontology that preserves the autonomy of mental kinds may better accomm...An explanatory framework that leaves out real features of its domain is not pref...If mental state types cannot be systematically identified with brain state types...If qualia are real but not reducible to physical properties, then the identity t...
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    Multiple realizability shows that mental states can be instantiated by physicall...Parsimony favors explanations with less ontological commitmentPhenomenal consciousness involves qualitative properties (qualia) that are not c...The dualist explanation involves more ontology than the identity theory explanat...The identity theory and dualism explain the same empirical data

    Similar

    The mind-brain identity theory can be established without relying on p...89%Herder's force-based theory of mind is superior to both dualistic theo...86%The identity theory and dualism explain the same empirical data83%Dualistic theories and mind-brain identity theories do not tie mental ...82%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: david-lewis
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    Lewis’s first, and most important, use of Ramsification was to argue for the mind-brain identity theory, in “An Argument for the Identity Theory”. Lewis claims in this paper that his argument does not rely on parsimony considerations. The orthodox argument for the identity theory at the time, as in e.g. J. J. C. Smart (1959), turned on parsimony. The identity theory and dualism explain the same data, but the dualist explanation involves more ontology than the identity theory explanation. So the
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

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