Intro to the Mind

Question 1

Descartes' Conceivability Argument

The conceivability argument that raised by Descartes is given in his Sixth Mediation. Arguably, the opinions differ about what actually wrong with the conceivability argument. As per the research conducted and found that many philosophers judge it unsound considering Hume's law is false because conceivability is not actually sufficient for logical possibility. This concept seems to be correct because if one follows all the statements made in terms of numerical identity considered being true. To get the better understanding, assume that I can conceive that the stars in evening only exist without the existing morning stars. One thing that needs to be highlighted at this point is that this is not the same as evening stars exist without one conceiving that the morning stars exist. Therefore, it is understandable that conceiving A without B is actually not identical to situation in which one can conceive A without conceiving B. As the stars in the morning are identical to the stars of evening, the only difference arises is the difference in the names of the planets. In relation to this, Descartes seemed assuming that he had full knowledge of bodies and mind. Thus, the argument raised is that according to Descartes that thinking is essential for the mind, and extension is also necessary for the bodies (Hofstadter, pp. 135).

Descartes showed that consciousness is an integral part of the mind or take as a thinking substance; however, the thing that he needs to prove is that the thinking substance or the mind cannot have the extension for its essential properties. Conceivability argument is not that much convincing because there are certain things that need to be prove, however, Descartes made an attempt to convince trough the divisibility argument in which he stated that all extended things are divisible.

Question 2

Physicalism is False

Considering consciousness actually distinguish between the two different aspects, first is the physical aspect of the firing neurons and the second aspect is the mental capacity of how being a person feels alive. Now at this point there is a contradiction between physical and mental is the same, physicalist distinct or believes and dualist believes. According to Nagel in the book 'What is like to be a Bat', it could not be fair to conclude that physicalism must be false. And another point that mentioned in the book was that physicalism is basically a position that one cannot understand because at present we do not have much evidence and information that how might it could be true. These points seem to be inconsistent, but Nagel defines physicalism as the mental states are known as the states of the body, whereas, on the other hand, mental events are the physical events. For instance, current President of United States and Barack Obama are two distinct names but in reality they correspond to the same object, therefore, it is assumed that mental states and physical states correspond to the same event.

Hofstadter might language confused the ...