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    Carmelics

    A reasoning platform. Break down any belief into clear reasons, explore both sides, and weigh the evidence honestly.

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    Made withinDC&Austin
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    Perspectives
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    Home/Original/inverse
    See Original
    Inverse View

    It is not the case that The mind is distinct from the body

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.Mental states such as pain, fear, and desire are systematically caused by and causally efficacious upon bodily states.
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    • 2.If mind and body were genuinely distinct substances, no causal interaction between them would be intelligible, as Descartes himself could not explain the pineal gland mechanism.
      ?

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    • 3.A theory of mind that cannot account for mind-body causation is explanatorily defective and should be rejected in favor of a monist alternative.
      ?

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    Reason for 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Neuroscience demonstrates that every discriminable mental state corresponds to a specific, identifiable neural state or process.
      ?

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    • 2.The identity theory (Place, Smart, Armstrong) holds that this systematic correlation is best explained by strict type or token identity, not mere correlation between distinct substances.
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    • 3.Descartes' argument from conceivability—that mind can be clearly conceived without body—does not establish real distinctness, since conceivability does not entail metaphysical possibility, as Kripke's work on necessary a posteriori truths demonstrates.
      ?

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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.The essence of mind is thought, and a thinking thing is unextended
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    • 2.The essence of matter is extension, and extended things cannot think
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    • 3.Clear and distinct intellectual perceptions of the essences of mind and matter establish these essences as genuinely distinct
      ?

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    Next step

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    Strongest counterpoint
    Explore the most compelling reason on the other side.