The Mind-Body Problem

The issue of what mental phenomena really are and how they relate to the physical world

Do the concepts and categories we use to describe reality influence or determine what we view reality as?

Do these categories and descriptions embody the values of the describer?

To what extent are these value-laden concepts gendered [privileging hegemonic masculinity]?

Theories of Sex, Gender, & Sexuality

The notion that there are essentially two fundamentally different kinds of stuff, or substances 

Substance Dualism 

The notion that mind and body consist of two fundamentally different kinds of stuff, or substances—the mind being of nonphysical stuff and the body of physical stuff 

Property Dualism 

The view that mental properties are nonphysical properties arising from, but not reducible to, physical properties

The idea of a nonphysical thing interacting with a physical thing is mysterious (interaction problem) and implausible (incompatible with scientific inquiry) 

Thus, the mind cannot be an immaterial substance that interacts causally with the physical world

NOTE: Certain proposed solutions (e.g., epiphenomenalism) attempt to address the interaction problem by maintaining their respective independence or postulating some external binding force (usually divine)

The doctrine that every object and event in the world is physical 

Identity Theory 

The view that mental states are identical to physical brain states

Logical Behaviorism 

The idea that mental states are dispositions to behave in a particular way in certain circumstances

How can even a very complicated physical system produce mental phenomena that seem to have no physical characteristics? 

Infamous thought experiments (e.g., Chalmer's Zombies and Nagel's Bat) aim to demonstrate how inclined we are to maintain that there is something in addition to, or beyond, what the materialist can account for

Functionalism 

The view that the mind is the functions that the brain performs. I.e., mental states are functions between perceptual inputs and behavioral outputs

NOTE: This influential theory has led some philosophers to the view that the human brain is a kind of computer leading to the possibility of conscious A.I.

Eliminative Materialism

Claims that mental conscious states (desires, beliefs, intentions) don’t exist, and that future science will let us eliminate all terms referring to such states

Epiphenomenalism 

The notion that mental properties do not cause anything but merely accompany physical processes