PHL240H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Physical Law, Aspirin, Human Body
Document Summary
Terminology: material: spatial and subject to physical law, two things interact if they can causally influence each other. Spiritual: neither spatial nor subject to physical law, has consciousness and intentionality. Propositions: human body is a material thing, human mind is a spiritual thing, mind and body interact, spirt and matter do not interact. 1, 2, and 4 jointly entail that 5. mind and body do not interact. Mind body problem: must know which of 4 propositions to reject, each proposition is very plausible, the human body is a material thing. Our bodies appear to be spatial and subject to physical laws. The materiality of body is presupposed by natural sciences: the human mind is a spiritual thing. Our minds don"t seem to be in space/subject to physical law. They also have consciousness and intentionality: mind and body interact. Idea that taking aspirin makes headaches go away: spirit and matter do not interact. If something is spiritual, it isn"t in space.
