This document discusses different philosophical theories about the relationship between the mind and body, and how they relate to the 1999 film Being John Malkovich. It describes physicalism, which claims all substance is physical, and substance dualism, which claims there are both physical and non-physical mental substances. It also briefly mentions idealism and functionalism. It concludes by listing foreign language titles for the movie that translate to things like "In the Skin of John Malkovich" and "Do You Want to be John Malkovich?".
QUANTUM CREATIVITY
Think Quantum, be Creative!
Our societies are going through crisis. The signs are everywhere—economic meltdowns, environmental pollution and global climate change, worldview polarization of politics and frozen democracies, terrorism, loss of meaning and value in education in favor of information processing, healthcare systems whose cost cannot be contained, etc. Not coincidentally, there is an acute need for a paradigm shift in our science that is ridden with paradoxes and anomalous data. Such a paradigm shift has begun under the aegis of quantum physics and with it a change is taking place in our worldview from religious dualism and scientific materialism (the primacy of matter) to an integrative worldview based on the primacy of consciousness.
For crisis resolution and paradigm shifts, we need creativity. What is interesting is that in the time of crisis and paradigm shifts, opportunities arise galore for the fulfillment of our creative potential. The quantum approach is telling us that everyone today can be creative. The purpose of this lecture is to tell you how and to properly motivate you from information processing to creativity.
What is the vehicle that a creative rides? The answer is, the quantum, the quantum, the quantum. Creativity requires quantum thinking—the capacity to engage with a problem both in the conscious and in the unconscious. We will explain quantum unconscious processing; we will delve into quantum leaps that creativity researchers identify as the aha! insight. We will learn the secrets of creative living--do-be-do-be-do and the flow experience.
We will explore creativity in the outer arena—the arts the sciences, and businesses. We will also investigate inner creativity--how to creatively transform our emotions from negative to positive and acquire emotional intelligence. Finally, I will explicate the creative journey of spiritual enlightenment.
QUANTUM CREATIVITY
Think Quantum, be Creative!
Our societies are going through crisis. The signs are everywhere—economic meltdowns, environmental pollution and global climate change, worldview polarization of politics and frozen democracies, terrorism, loss of meaning and value in education in favor of information processing, healthcare systems whose cost cannot be contained, etc. Not coincidentally, there is an acute need for a paradigm shift in our science that is ridden with paradoxes and anomalous data. Such a paradigm shift has begun under the aegis of quantum physics and with it a change is taking place in our worldview from religious dualism and scientific materialism (the primacy of matter) to an integrative worldview based on the primacy of consciousness.
For crisis resolution and paradigm shifts, we need creativity. What is interesting is that in the time of crisis and paradigm shifts, opportunities arise galore for the fulfillment of our creative potential. The quantum approach is telling us that everyone today can be creative. The purpose of this lecture is to tell you how and to properly motivate you from information processing to creativity.
What is the vehicle that a creative rides? The answer is, the quantum, the quantum, the quantum. Creativity requires quantum thinking—the capacity to engage with a problem both in the conscious and in the unconscious. We will explain quantum unconscious processing; we will delve into quantum leaps that creativity researchers identify as the aha! insight. We will learn the secrets of creative living--do-be-do-be-do and the flow experience.
We will explore creativity in the outer arena—the arts the sciences, and businesses. We will also investigate inner creativity--how to creatively transform our emotions from negative to positive and acquire emotional intelligence. Finally, I will explicate the creative journey of spiritual enlightenment.
Chapter 7. The Mind-Body ProblemChapter 7. The Mind-Body Pro.docxspoonerneddy
Chapter 7. The Mind-Body Problem
Chapter 7. The Mind-Body Problem
Chapter 7
The Mind-Body Problem
During week 6 read the second half (Sections 6-end).
Copyright by Paul Herrick, 2020. For class use only. Not for distribution. This chapter: 32 pages of reading.
1. Are You Your Brain?
Sometimes we refer to our brains; other times we refer to our minds. BJ the Chicago Kid titled his second album In My Mind. But Screeching Weasel titled its third studio album My Brain Hurts. Are the mind and the brain two different things? Or are they one and the same? To put the question another way: Are thoughts, sensations, mental images, and such nothing more than physical events or processes of the physical brain? Are they just neurons (brain cells) firing or something like that? Or is the mind an immaterial, nonphysical entity distinct from the brain but interacting in some way with it? In philosophy, these and related questions make up the mind-body problem.
Since ancient times, the common view has been that the mind—the part of us that is conscious, that thinks, that makes choices, that bears moral responsibility—is immaterial and cannot be physically seen, touched, weighed, or otherwise directly detected by instruments. On this view, the mind--often called the “soul,” “spirit,” or “self”—is not the brain or any part of the body or any physical thing at all. However, since mind and body obviously interact, the common view has long been that the mind or soul can affect the body and the body can affect the mind. More specifically, the immaterial mind can cause changes in the physical body, through the interface of the physical brain, and the brain can cause changes in the mind.
In philosophy, this traditional view is called “mind-body dualism” (“dualism” for short) because it claims that mind and body are two distinct things. The common view is sometimes also called “mind-body interactionism” because it claims that mind and body, though distinct, interact. Philosophical dualists argue that the universe divides into two radically different kinds of substances—mindless matter and thinking mind or, as some prefer to put it, matter and spirit, or as still others put it, matter and consciousness.
Most religions of the world teach a dualist account of human nature. Each human being, they generally claim, is composed of an immaterial mind or soul joined to a material body. On the religious view, the mind, or soul, rather than the material body is the part that will be judged by God in the end. As the basis of moral responsibility, the soul is the root of one’s identity as a person. In other words, the soul is the true self; the material body is merely the soul’s temporary lodging place during its journey on earth. Most religions also teach a doctrine of immortality, or survival—the claim that the immaterial soul lives on in a higher realm after the death and disintegration of the material body.
If dualism is true and your immaterial mind, or soul, is the .
Chapter 7. The Mind-Body ProblemChapter 7. The Mind-Body Pro.docxrobertad6
Chapter 7. The Mind-Body Problem
Chapter 7. The Mind-Body Problem
Chapter 7
The Mind-Body Problem
During week 6 read the second half (Sections 6-end).
Copyright by Paul Herrick, 2020. For class use only. Not for distribution. This chapter: 32 pages of reading.
1. Are You Your Brain?
Sometimes we refer to our brains; other times we refer to our minds. BJ the Chicago Kid titled his second album In My Mind. But Screeching Weasel titled its third studio album My Brain Hurts. Are the mind and the brain two different things? Or are they one and the same? To put the question another way: Are thoughts, sensations, mental images, and such nothing more than physical events or processes of the physical brain? Are they just neurons (brain cells) firing or something like that? Or is the mind an immaterial, nonphysical entity distinct from the brain but interacting in some way with it? In philosophy, these and related questions make up the mind-body problem.
Since ancient times, the common view has been that the mind—the part of us that is conscious, that thinks, that makes choices, that bears moral responsibility—is immaterial and cannot be physically seen, touched, weighed, or otherwise directly detected by instruments. On this view, the mind--often called the “soul,” “spirit,” or “self”—is not the brain or any part of the body or any physical thing at all. However, since mind and body obviously interact, the common view has long been that the mind or soul can affect the body and the body can affect the mind. More specifically, the immaterial mind can cause changes in the physical body, through the interface of the physical brain, and the brain can cause changes in the mind.
In philosophy, this traditional view is called “mind-body dualism” (“dualism” for short) because it claims that mind and body are two distinct things. The common view is sometimes also called “mind-body interactionism” because it claims that mind and body, though distinct, interact. Philosophical dualists argue that the universe divides into two radically different kinds of substances—mindless matter and thinking mind or, as some prefer to put it, matter and spirit, or as still others put it, matter and consciousness.
Most religions of the world teach a dualist account of human nature. Each human being, they generally claim, is composed of an immaterial mind or soul joined to a material body. On the religious view, the mind, or soul, rather than the material body is the part that will be judged by God in the end. As the basis of moral responsibility, the soul is the root of one’s identity as a person. In other words, the soul is the true self; the material body is merely the soul’s temporary lodging place during its journey on earth. Most religions also teach a doctrine of immortality, or survival—the claim that the immaterial soul lives on in a higher realm after the death and disintegration of the material body.
If dualism is true and your immaterial mind, or soul, is the .
Chapter 19 Dualism and the MindBody Problem Chapter Out.docxcravennichole326
Chapter 19 Dualism and the
Mind/Body Problem
Chapter Outline
1. What Is the Mind/Body Problem?
2. Descartes’ Dualism
3. The Mind/Brain Identity Theory
4. Immortality of the Soul
5. Leibniz’s Law
6. Descartes’ First Argument for Dualism—The Indubitable Existence Argument
7. An Analogy
8. Propositional Attitudes and Aboutness
9. Descartes’ Second Argument for Dualism—The Divisibility Argument
10. Causality between the Physical and the Nonphysical
In this fourth part of the book, on philosophy of mind, I’ll discuss three problems—the
mind/body problem (Chapters 19– 23), the problem of free will (Chapters 24– 26), and
the problem of psychological egoism (Chapter 27). The mind/body problem and the
problem of free will both address the broad issue of how the mind is related to the physical
world of cause and effect. Are minds physical things (for example, are they identical with
brains?), or are they nonmaterial? If your beliefs and desires are caused by physical events
outside of yourself, how can it be true that you act the way you do of your own free will?
The last problem—the problem of psychological egoism—concerns the motives that drive
us to act. Are people genuinely moved by the welfare of others, or is all behavior, in reality,
selfish?
These three problems concern different stages in the causal chain that leads from genes
and environment, to the mind, and then to action:
The mind/body problem concerns the nature of the objects and events that exist at stage 2
in this diagram. What is a mind? What are beliefs and desires? The problem of free will
concerns the relation of stage 1 and stage 2. If our beliefs and desires are caused by the
genes we possess and the environments we have inhabited, how can we possess free will?
The problem of psychological egoism concerns the relationship of stages 2 and 3. If the
actions we perform are caused by the desires we have, won’t it be true that all action is
fundamentally selfish—aimed at satisfying the actor’s own desires, not at satisfying the
needs of others? These are preliminary statements of the three philosophical problems.
Each needs to be refined.
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3. Physicalism
All substance is physical substance.
Physical substance:
Is extended in space
Has distinct spatio-temporal location
Obeys physical laws of nature
4. Substance Dualism
There are two kinds of substance: physical substance and
mental substance
Physical substance:
Is extended in space
Has distinct spatio-temporal location
Obeys physical laws of nature
Is divisible
Is not conscious
Mental Substance:
Is not extended in space
Has no spatio-temporal location
Is not subject to physical laws of nature
Is indivisible
Is conscious
5. Physical Bodies
Both Physicalism and Substance Dualism treat purely
physical bodies in the same way.
What happens to the piece of wood, or Craig’s body,
poses the same problem for both theories.
6. An Aside: Idealism
All substance is mental substance
Mental substance consists of minds/souls and their ideas.
Thus, on this view, there are no physical bodies
whatsoever.
7. Functionalism
Mental states are identified with the roles they play in the
overall system of mental events and their causes.
This is compatible with physicalism.
It is often explicated with a computing machine
metaphor: the mind is the software that runs on the
brain’s hardware.
8. Malkovich, In Foreign Tongues
France: Dans le peau de John Malkovich (“In the Skin of
John Malkovich”)
Romania: În mintea lui John Malkovich (“In the mind of John
Malkovich”)
Mexico/Argentina: ¿Quieres ser John Malkovich? (“Do You
Want to be John Malkovich?”)
Poland: Byc jak John Malkovich (“Be Like John Malkovich”)
