philosophy of mind session 6 of 9
TRANSCRIPT
An Introductory Course On Perspectives Of Western And Islamic Philosophy
Agenda
•Initiate session 10:25
•About the lectures10:25 – 10:40
•Western perspectives 10:40 – 11:25
•Break11:25 – 11:40
•Islamic perspectives 11:40 – 12:25
•Questions and answers12:25 – 13:00
Lecture Series
A total of nine lectures are anticipated to be delivered on a monthly basis over a
period of nine consecutive months
Each of the lectures shall provide a rudimentary understanding of various
philosophical concepts
Please refer to the provided handbook for further details and supplementary
readings
Sessions Date and Time Subject Matter Western
Perspectives
Islamic
Perspectives
1 of 9
24th August 2014
10:15am - 1.00pm
JKN
Introduction to philosophy
What is philosophy?
Why study philosophy?
Meaning and definition
2 of 9
21st September 2014
10:15am - 1.00pm
JKN
What can we know?
Knowledge
[Epistemology 1/2]
What is knowing?
What is knowledge?
Belief, truth and evidence
The sources and concepts of knowledge,
reason and experience
3 of 9
19th October 2014
10:15am - 1.00pm
JKN
What is the world like?
Perceiving the World
[Epistemology 2/2]
Realism
Idealism
Our knowledge of the physical world
4 of 9
23rd November 2014
10:15am - 1.00pm
JKN
The way the world works
Scientific Knowledge
[Philosophy of Science]
Laws of nature
Explanation
Theories
Possibility
The problem of induction
5 of 9
21st December 2014
10:15am - 1.00pm
JKN
What is and what must be?
Freedom and Necessity
[Metaphysics]
Causality
Determinism and freedom
6 of 9
18th January 2015
10:15am - 1.00pm
JKN
What am I?
Mind and Body
[Philosophy of Mind]
The physical and the mental,
The relationship between the physical and the mental,
Materialism
7 of 9
15th February 2015
10:15am - 1.00pm
JKN
What else is there?
[Philosophy of Religion 1/2]
Ontological, cosmological and teleological arguments for the existence
of God
8 of 9
22th March 2015
10:15am - 1.00pm
JKN
What else is there?
[Philosophy of Religion 2/2]
The concept of God
The problem of evil
Religious concepts
9 of 9
19th April 2015
10:15am - 1.00pm
JKN
The is and the ought
[Problems in Ethics]
Meta-ethics
Theories of goodness
Theories of conduct
The primary aim and overall objective, among other subsidiary
benefits, is to assist in familiarising and acquainting its recipients with
the conceptual [and intellectual] perils, predominantly encountered by religion in todays society, which are propelled by [or in the name of]
philosophy.
Philosophy of Mind
What is ‘Philosophy of Mind’?
The philosophical study of the mind and
the mental functioning.
Why study the Philosophy of Mind?
Curiosity. Mental phenomena
seems to different from everything else.
How we know about mental states differs from how we know everything
else.
Mental states play a central role in providing
meaning to our lives.
Interests us because . . .
What are the problems it’s concerned with?
Problems that constitute this field concern mentality and mental problems
[1]
Clarifying out conception of
mentality itself.
[2]
Metal properties and mental
states.
[3]
The mind-body
problem.
The Mind-Body Problem
The philosophical problem of how the mind is related to the body, and of what properties,
functions, and occurrences should be regarded as,
respectively, mental or physical.
Why should we think there is a problem here?
Mental
Physical
The mental states are so utterly
different from the physical and yet the
two seem intimately related
to each other.
What do we mean by the term ‘mind’?
Soul
Psychological states
Nothing but the brain
Different understandings
of the mind, quite evidently, lead to different understandings
of the mind-body problem.
Mental Causation
The term "mental causation" applies to causal transactions involving mental events or states, such as
beliefs, desires, feelings, and perceptions. Typically, the term is
used to refer to cases where a mental state causes a physical reaction
Dualism and Materialism
Cartesian Dualism
Extended substance or matter
Mind or soul
Materialism
Matter alone exists, implying a denial of the existence of
minds, spirits, divine beings, etc.
Whatever exists is either matter, or entirely dependent
on matter for its existence.
Cartesian Dualism
Physical Substance
Mental Property
Physical Property
I N T E R A C T
I N T E R A C T
Central-State Materialism
Body
Brain
(Mind)
Models of Mind-Body Interaction
Interactionism
the view that the mind and the body directly cause things
to happen in each other
Parallelism
the view that the mind and the body act "in parallel," but
never casually interact directly
Epiphenomenalism
the view that only the body has causal powers, but the
mind is causally inert
Reductionism
the view that the mind just is the body, and so whatever causal efficacy the physical
has, the mental also has
Four basic models of mind-body
interaction
Religious Implications of Philosophy of Mind
Dualistic View
Allows room for specific religious
doctrines
Materialistic View
No room for anything other than
a reductionist explanation
How likely is it that we solve the problem of
interaction between mind and body?
Break
15 Minutes
IslamicPerspective
Motivation in Pursuing Knowledge of the Soul
In opposition to the Occasionalist views of the
Mutakallimûn.
Philosophers wished to anchor their knowledge of the world in a stable and
predictable physical reality.
This entailed naturalizing the soul (nafs in Arabic)
itself, charting the relation between its external and
internal senses and between its imaginative and rational faculties.
The ultimate goal of this subject, conjunction of the
intellect with universal truth, had a decidedly
metaphysical and spiritual aspect.
Aristotle’s Concept of the Soul
Soul
Form of a Body
Actuality of a Body
Potentially Alive
Aristotle’s Division of Parts & Powers of Soul
Intellective and rational soul
[Humans]
Sensitive Soul
[Animals and Humans]
Nutritive or Vegetative
[Common to all living bodies – plants, animals and humans
alike]
Most Arab Philosophers accepted Aristotle’s division of the parts and powers of the soul according to which “soul” is an
ordered genus divided into three
species, corresponding to the
division of living things to plants,
animals, and humans.
The Peripatetics
Identified four development stages of the intellect
[1]
Potential or
Material Intellect
[2]
Habitual Intellect
[3]
Actual Intellect
[4]
Acquired Intellect
Ibn-Sīnā Conception of the Soul
Rejected Aristotle’s
concept of the soul
Upholds a form of soul-body
dualism
The soul is a subsistent being in its own right
Independent of any relation to the body
Holds the personal immortality of the
individual human soul
The Eternity of the Soul
Most Philosophers viewed the intellect alone
as immaterial and incorruptible and, thus
eternal.
They also typically conceived of
eschatological notions such as Paradise and Hell in purely spiritual terms.
They rejected the Qur’anic doctrine of bodily resurrection as a crude but
necessary figurative sop thrown to the uncomprehending vulgar multitude.
Imām Al-Ghazālī’sRejection
Possibility that the soul is to some extent dependent on
the body
That which is unascertainable affords
no ground for the judgement
Destruction may be caused by God
Occasionalism
Occasionalism and the Mind-Body Problem
Occasionalism is often thought of primarily as a
rather desperate solution to the problem of mind-body
interaction.
Mind and body, it maintains, do not in fact causally affect each other at all; rather, it is
God who causes bodily movements to occur 'on the
occasion of' appropriate mental states (for example, volitions), and who causes
mental states, such as sensations, on the occasion of
the corresponding bodily states (for example, sensory
stimulation).
Occasionalism and the Mind-Body Problem
NEXT LECTURE
PHILOSOPHY OFRELIGION
15th February 2015 10:15am – 13:00
JKN