Combining Texts

Ideas for 'fragments/reports', 'Animal Rights and Wrongs' and 'Ontology'

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2 ideas

17. Mind and Body / B. Behaviourism / 4. Behaviourism Critique
Conditioning may change behaviour without changing the mind [Scruton]
     Full Idea: Conditioning involves a change of behaviour, but not necessarily a change of mind.
     From: Roger Scruton (Animal Rights and Wrongs [1996], p.16)
     A reaction: I am inclined to doubt this. If I was conditioned in some way, I would expect my conscious state to change as well as my behaviour.
17. Mind and Body / E. Mind as Physical / 2. Reduction of Mind
Reduction of intentionality involving nonexistent objects is impossible, as reduction must be to what is actual [Jacquette]
     Full Idea: If intentionality sometimes involves a relation to nonexistent objects, like my dreamed-of visit to a Greek island, then such thoughts cannot be explained physically or causally, because only actual physical entities and events can be mentioned.
     From: Dale Jacquette (Ontology [2002], Ch.10)
     A reaction: Unimpressive. Thoughts of a Greek island will obviously reduce to memories of islands and Greece and travel brochures. Memory clearly retains past events in the present, and hence past events can be part of the material used in reductive accounts.