Single Idea 3520

[catalogued under 17. Mind and Body / D. Property Dualism / 3. Property Dualism]

Full Idea

In token-identity mental and physical features seem as unrelated as colour and shape, which is very weak physicalism because it does not allow physical states an explanatory role in accounting for mental states.

Gist of Idea

Token-identity removes the explanatory role of the physical

Source

Keith T. Maslin (Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind [2001], 3.8.6)

Book Reference

Maslin,Keith: 'An Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind' [Polity 2001], p.93


A Reaction

Colour and shape are not totally unrelated, as they can both be totally explained by a full knowledge of the physical substance involved. ...But maybe if we fully understood Spinoza's single substance...? See Idea 4834.

Related Idea

Idea 4834 Mind and body are the same thing, sometimes seen as thought, and sometimes as extension [Spinoza]