Self, Death and Afterlife (Philosophy)

• Dualism

  - The idea that reality has two fundamental aspects.
• Monism

  - The belief that there is only one fundamental aspect to reality.
• Physicalism

  - The most common kind of monism.

  - They believe that all that exists is physical matter, and everything can be explained and described in these terms.
• The mind

  - The thing that produces consciousness.
• Physicalism vs Dualism

  - Dualists think consciousness is produced in a non-physical mind that is separate from your brain.

  - Physicalists think we don't need a non-physical part of us to explain why we are conscious. Consciousness can be produced in the brain.
• Descartes' Dualism

  - Substance dualism: he thinks the body is made of physical matter, but the mind is made of some kind of non-physical substance.
• Descartes' Approach to Proving Dualism

  - If Descartes shows that the mind and physical body are fundamentally different, he's shown that they must be two separate things.

  - He wants to show that the mind has properties the physical body doesn't have, meaning the mind and physical body aren't the same thing.
• Descartes - The Argument from Doubt

  1) I can doubt that my body exists.

  2) I cannot doubt that my mind exists.

  Conclusion: Therefore, the mind and body are different.

  - Descartes' definition of doubt is that you can't know your body exists for 100% certain.

  - If you are certain that if you believe something is true, then you must also be certain that everything incompatible with this belief is false.
• Descartes' doubting of the body

  - Descartes comes up with the following possibilities that we cannot conclusively disprove:

  1) I am actually just dreaming that I have a body.

  -> How would you prove that you actually aren't a disembodied mind, floating around somewhere, dreaming that you are walking around as a physical body?

  
  

  2) An infinitely powerful demon is tricking me into believing my body exists.
• Descartes' doubting of the mind?

  - There has to be something that exists, because something is doing the dreaming.

  - The demon can't just trick thin air - there has to be something for it to trick.

  - We can doubt that our body exists, but there has to be something that is doing the doubting.

  - So Descartes says we cannot doubt that the mind exists.
• Descartes - The Argument from Divisibility

  1) It is possible to divide the body.

  2) It is not possible to divide the mind.

  Conclusion: Therefore, the mind and body are different.
• Descartes - The Argument from Clear and Distinct Perceptions

  1) Whatever I can imagine as separate, God could have created separately.

  2) I imagine myself as a non-physical thinking thing.

  3) I imagine my body as a physical non-thinking thing.

  Conclusion 1: So, the body and soul could be created separately.

  Conclusion 2: So, the body and soul are different.
• Ryle's Criticism of Dualism

  - Humans are basically just machines. If we saw a robot, we would not assume it is haunted by a non-physical ghost.
• Dualism as a Category Mistake

  - Ryle thinks that assuming humans have non-physical souls is a category mistake.

  - A category mistake is when somebody is looking for completely the wrong type of answer to a question, or is looking in completely the wrong place.
• Physicalist interaction of the mind and brain

  - The mind and brain are the same, so there is no mystery about how they interact. It is all biological.
• Dualist interaction

  - Thoughts and decisions occur in the non-physical mind, but decisions made in the non-physical world cause things to move and do stuff in the physical world.
• Interaction problem #1 - The physical and non-physical can't interact

  - Non physical things can't physically interact with physical objects.

  - There is no empirical evidence that this interaction can/does happen.
• Interaction problem #2 - Energy to the mind

  - Doing anything takes energy.

  - According to dualism, our non-physical minds are supposed to do stuff too.

  - There is no evidence to support this idea. Where does it get the energy to do it?

  - When we scan and examine people's brains, we don't see any activities that are 'non-physical'.
• Functionalism

  - Monistic theory.

  - Suggests that many objects could share an identity even if they are made of very different things.

  - Suggests that the mind controls our behaviour.

  - Suggests that one object could have many identities in its lifetime.
• Function as a specific form of physicalism

  - Functionalism is an approach in philosophy and science that defines, understands and analyses things according to the role that they perform.

  - The mind is whatever does the job of a mind.
• Consequence of functionalism: multiple realisability


  - The mind doesn't have to be made out of any specific substance in order to be a mind.

  - Multiple realisablility is the idea that the same function can be performed by many different types of thing.
• What is the function of the mind?

  - Functionalists say that the function of the brain is to process information.

  - When the brain processes information, it produces consciousness as it does so.

  - Consciousness is the by-product of processing inputs and turning them into outputs.

  - Physicalists say that if you process information in the right way, you get consciousness.
• David Chalmers: The hard problem of consciousness


  - Physicalists say that brains are just processing information to produce outputs.

  - Computers can also do this.

  - Unlike the computer though, you experience the tree: you see greenness of the leaves, you hear the sound of the breeze in the branches, the smell of bark.

  - The computer doesn't have that conscious experience.

  - If physicalists are right, and both you and the computer are just physical objects processing information, what explains this difference?
• Consciousness and the limits of science

  - Qualia are inherently subjective experiences that cannot be described in terms of physical facts. They are "raw feelings".

  - The fact that you can't seem to "get at" consciousness no matter how much science you do shows why the Hard Problem is so hard.
• The problem with the Hard Problem

  - Even if consciousness is just the result of biological processes in the physical brain, it is a private, subjective experience.

  - It's not even clear which discipline (psychology, neuroscience, computer science, philosophy) is the right approach to take.

  - We don't know what methods to use to get an answer, what an answer looks like, or even how we'd know if we got one.
• Dual-Aspect Monism

  - There is one fundamental substance, though we don't know what it is. It has both physical and mental aspects.

  - Minds and brains are different, but they are both made of this substance which is neither the same as just matter or just mind-stuff.
• Why does dual-aspect monism succeed?

  - Dualism had to answer "if the brain and the mind are made of separate substances, how can they interact?".

  -> Dual-aspect monism's advantage is that the brain and mind aren't made of separate substances.

  
  

  - Physicalism had to answer "how can an object made purely of physical matter produce consciousness?".

  -> Dual-aspect monism's advantage is that the mind isn't made of purely physical matter. It's made of psycho-physical matter, to which consciousness is built-in.
• Panpsychism

  - Everything is at least a little bit conscious (although it may not be conscious in the same way or to the same extent that humans are conscious).
• Downside of dual-aspect monism

  - You have to accept that humanity in general and scientists have been completely wrong about what reality is made of for hundreds of years.
• Personal identity debate

  Inconsistent triad:

  1) We are the same person as our past selves.

  2) We are different people from our past selves.

  3) Things cannot be the same if they are different.
• Premise 1 solution and challenge

  - Solution: Maybe we aren't the same person we used to be. It could actually be right to think of ourselves as completely different people as we go through time.

  - Challenge: How often does this happen? How do we make sense of holding people accountable for past actions?
• Premise 2 solution and challenge

  - Solution: Maybe we aren't totally different. There could be some similarity we can point to that we have with our past selves.

  - Challenge: What is that similarity and why is it right to say that's the core fact about our identity? How do you ensure this similarity is totally unique?
• Premise 3 solution and challenge

  - Solution: Maybe things can be the same and different at the same time despite not being identical.

  - Challenge: How different can things be whilst still counting as the same and why is that threshold sensible? What if you end up with multiple objects counting as the same?
• The personal identity problems

  - Problem of Personal Identity: what is it that makes me the person I am?

  
  

  - Problem of Continuing Personal Existence: what explains the fact that I seem to continue to exist over time?

  
  

  - Problem of Continuing Personal Existence After Death: could I continue to exist after my death?
• Approaches to personal identity problems: Physical

  - Physical Identity Theory: who you are depends on your body, and so you continue to exist through time insofar as your body continues to exist in time.
• Approaches to personal identity problems: Psychological

  - Psychological Identity Theory: who you are depends on your psychology, and so you continue through time insofar as psychological factors (like your memories and personality) continue to exist in time.
• Approaches to personal identity problems: Metaphysical

  - Metaphysical Identity Theory: who you are depends on your soul, and so you continue to exist through time insofar as your soul continues through time.
• Psychological Identity

  - I am psychologically connected to my past self (for example, through memories).
• Parfit's Bundle Theory


  - Sees continuity after death in terms of psychological connectedness.

  -> There is no such thing as a self: individuals are 'bundles' of ever-changing states of being.
• The Bundle Theory and the Afterlife

  - It is possible for your psychology to overlap with someone else's.

  -> Any influence people have in life continue after death as long as the person is remembered.