Mind-body problem: New approaches

The mind-body problem.

II. The denial of strict psychophysical laws would not undermine the claim that mental events are causally efficacious. § The three premisses from which AM is derived: (1) that mental events are causally related to physical events (2) that singular causal relations are backed by strict laws (3) that there are no strict psycho-physical laws ⇒ AM + P § "supervenience" ___ a predicate p is superve...

The mind-body problem.

JERRY A. FODOR Jerry A. Fodor is professor of philosophy at Rutgers University. He is renowned for defending the view that we think in an inner language, akin to the symbolic codes used in ordinary computers. Fodor's highly influential works include The Language of Thought, The Modularity of Mind, and Psychosemantics. Copyright @ 1981 by Scientific American, Inc. Reprinted by permission of the ...

The Mind–Body Problem

Human beings, and perhaps other creatures, have minds as well as bodies. But what is a mind, and what is its relation to body, or to the physical in general? 1. Mind‐Body Dualism The first answer to the mind‐body question proposed since medieval times was that of Descartes, who held that minds are wholly distinct from bodies and from physical objects of any sort. According to Cartesian dualism,...

Anomalous Panpsychism: A New Solution to the Mind-Body Problem∗

A satisfactory solution to the mind-problem should answer the two following questions: i) are phenomenal properties, the properties that characterize states of consciousness, physical? ii) how do phenomenal properties causally interact with physical properties? To a first approximation, physicalism and dualism are the two possible answers to the first question. There are three kinds of views re...

Towards a new approach to the mind-body problem