PHIL 1301 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Ignoratio Elenchi, Multiple Realizability, Anomalous Monism
9 Feb 2017
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More precisely: every mental type(property or state) is numerically identical with a material neurobiological property (property or state) Objection 1: afterimages are strange according to imp. Objection 2: pain and brain processes are not identical. Objection 3: after images cannot be numerically identical to brain processes. Smarts reply: this is an ignoratio elenchi (missing the point) Objection 4: based on multiple realizations (for pain to exist there must be identical brain processes for everyone) Putnam: we have to be certain that these things(c fibres and pain) exist together. P1: if two things are numerically identical then they are one and the same thing. P2: one could be in pain and not have c fibres. Phenomenological fallacy: to believe that our subjective reports of conscious states are actually describing properties of those states. One and the same mental type can be implemented by different lower level (physical) types. Every mental type is numerically identical with a material neurological type.
