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17. Mind and Body / A. Mind-Body Dualism / 8. Dualism of Mind Critique

[view that dualism is impossible or incorrect]

30 ideas
Homer does not distinguish between soul and body [Homer, by Williams,B]
Early thinkers concentrate on the soul but ignore the body, as if it didn't matter what body received the soul [Aristotle]
Incorporeal substances can't do anything, and can't be acted upon either [Zeno of Citium, by Cicero]
Bodies interact with other bodies, and cuts cause pain, and shame causes blushing, so the soul is a body [Cleanthes, by Nemesius]
Why would mind mix with matter if it didn't need it? [Cicero]
The 'thinking thing' may be the physical basis of the mind [Hobbes on Descartes]
Knowing different aspects of brain/mind doesn't make them different [Rorty on Descartes]
Descartes gives no clear criterion for individuating mental substances [Cottingham on Descartes]
Does Descartes have a clear conception of how mind unites with body? [Spinoza on Descartes]
Even Descartes may concede that mental supervenes on neuroanatomical [Lycan on Descartes]
Superman's strength is indubitable, Clark Kent's is doubtful, so they are not the same? [Maslin on Descartes]
A soul with physical extension is more likely than an immaterial soul that moves bodies [Elizabeth]
Mind and body are one thing, seen sometimes as thought and sometimes as extension [Spinoza]
We are incapable of formulating an idea which excludes the existence of our body [Spinoza]
For all we know, an omnipotent being might have enabled material beings to think [Locke]
When falling asleep, the soul becomes paralysed and weak, just like the body [La Mettrie]
Neither materialism nor spiritualism can reveal the separate existence of the soul [Kant]
Our concept of an incorporeal nature is merely negative [Kant]
The whole body is involved in the formation of thoughts [Novalis]
It is just madness to think that the mind is supernatural (or even divine!) [Nietzsche]
The supposed 'gulf' between mind and matter is based on the senseless concept of 'substances' [Ayer]
Cartesian dualism fails because it can't explain mental causation [Kim]
Dualism wallows in mystery, and to accept it is to give up [Dennett]
How does a dualist mind represent, exist outside space, and be transparent to itself? [Papineau]
Dualism implies some brain events with no physical cause, and others with no physical effect [Kirk,R]
If mental events occur in time, then relativity says they are in space [Lockwood]
People largely came to believe in dualism because it made human agents free [Flanagan]
If energy in the brain disappears into thin air, this breaches physical conservation laws [Lycan]
In lower animals, psychology is continuous with chemistry, and humans are continuous with animals [Lycan]
Out-of-body experiences may be due to temporary loss of proprioception [Carter,R]