PHIL 1101 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Chauvinism, Monism, Empiricism
Document Summary
Empiricism is the idea that all knowledge comes only from experience. Dualism: two kinds of things exist: mental, physical. Monism: only one kind of thing exists: mental. Descartes argument for dualism: indiscernibility of identicals. Descartes argument 2: indiscernibility of identicals, i perceive that my mind can exist without the body, i perceive that my body cannot exist without my body, mind is not equal to body. Category error: ascribing a quality or set of qualities to something that could not possibly possess them. Problems for dualism: interaction of mental and physical. How could two things of different substance interact: problem of other minds. How do we know what people are thinking. How do we know that other people have minds if we can only observe physical things. Ryle"s behaviorism: to have a mind is to be disposed to behave in certain ways. To be thirsty is just to be disposed to drinking a glass of water.
