Journal of Philosophical Investigations

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

PhD Candidate in Philosophy, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran

Abstract

U. T. Place claims that philosophical problems concerning the true nature of mind-brain relationship will be disappeared or settled in favor of materialism, especially type identity theory of mind. He takes above claim as a reasonable scientific hypothesis. I shall argue why it is not as he claims. At the first, to pave the way for refutation, I will briefly clarify Place's approach to subject in hand; although the rest of paper will be also contained more details about his position. Then, I will reduce his position into four theses and try to prove that the main claim of type identity theory is neither reasonable nor a mere scientific problem in disguise. I think that we ought to take type identity theory, at most, just as a hypothesis approximately displays the function of mind-brain relationship but tells us nothing justifiably about its true nature.

Keywords

Ayer, A. J. (1971), Language, Truth and Logic, Penguin Books.
Chalmers, D. (2007): "The Hard Problem of Consciousness", in Blackwell Companion to Consciousness, edited by M. Velmans and S. Schneider, Blackwell Publishing.
Churchland, P. M. (1999), Matter and Consciousness: A Contemporary Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind, MIT Press.
Davidson, D. (1999): "Anomalous Monism", in The MIT Encyclopedia of Cognitive Sciences, edited by R. A. Wilson and F. C. Keil, MIT Press.
Davidson, D. (2001a): "Mental Events", in Essays on Actions and Events, the first volume of Davidson's papers, second edition, Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Davidson, D. (2001b): "Psychology as Philosophy", in Essays on Actions and Events, the first volume of Davidson's papers, second edition, Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Frege, G. (1948): "Sense and Reference", in the Philosophical Review, Vol. 57, No. 3, Duke University Press.
Gilbert, Ch. (1999): "Neural Plasticity", in The MIT Encyclopedia of Cognitive Sciences, edited by R. A. Wilson and F. C. Keil, MIT Press.
Goldman, A. I. (1988): "Strong and Weak Justification", in Philosophical Perspectives, Vol. 2: Epistemology, Ridgeview Publishing Company.
Goldman, A. I. (2009): "Internalism, Externalism, and the Architecture of Justification", in The Journal of Philosophy.
Goodman, N. (1983), Fact, Fiction, and Forecast, fourth edition, Harvard University Press.
Harré, R. (2000): "Laws of Nature", in A Companion to Philosophy of Science, edited by W. H. Newton-Smith, Blackwell Publishers.
Hume, D. (1825), the Philosophical Works of David Hume, Vol. 1, Edinburgh, London.
Kant, I. (1929), Critique of Pure Reason, translated by N. K. Smith, Macmillan and Co., London.
Kim, J. (1993): "Concepts of Supervenience", in Supervenience and Mind: Selected Philosophical Essays, edited by J. Kim, Cambridge University Press.
Kripke, S. A. (1980), Naming and Necessity, Basil Blackwell.
Lewis, D. (1966): "An Argument for the Identity Theory", in Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 63, No. 1.
Lewis, D. (1983): "Mad Pain and Martian Pain", in Philosophical Papers, Vol. I, Oxford University Press.
Lowe, E. J. (2004): An Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind, Cambridge University Press.
McLaughlin, B. P. (1996): "Supervenience", in The Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Supplement, edited by D. M. Borchert, Simon & Schuster Macmillan, New York. 
Place, U. T. (2004a): "Is Consciousness a Brain Process?", in Identifying the Mind: selected papers of U. T. Place, edited by G. Graham and E. R. Valentine, Oxford university press.
Place, U. T. (2004b): "Materialism as a Scientific Hypothesis", in Identifying the Mind: selected papers of U. T. Place, edited by G. Graham and E. R. Valentine, Oxford university press.
Place, U. T. (2004c): "Thirty Years on - Is Consciousness still a Brain Process?", in Identifying the Mind: selected papers of U. T. Place, edited by G. Graham and E. R. Valentine, Oxford university press.
Place, U. T. (2004d):"On Social Relativity of Truth and the Analytic/Synthetic Distinction", in Identifying the Mind: selected papers of U. T. Place, edited by G. Graham and E. R. Valentine, Oxford university press.
Place, U. T. (2004e): "Linguistic behaviorism as a philosophy of empirical science", in Identifying the Mind: selected papers of U. T. Place, edited by G. Graham and E. R. Valentine, Oxford university press.
Place, U. T. (2004f):"Token- versus Type-Identity Physicalism", in Identifying the Mind: selected papers of U. T. Place, edited by G. Graham and E. R. Valentine, Oxford university press.
Place, U. T. (2004g): "The Two-Factor Theory of the Mind-Brain Relation", in Identifying the Mind: selected papers of U. T. Place, edited by G. Graham and E. R. Valentine, Oxford university press.
Place, U. T. (2004h): "The Causal Potency of Qualia: Its Nature and Its Source", in Identifying the Mind: selected papers of U. T. Place, edited by G. Graham and E. R. Valentine, Oxford university press.
Place, U. T. (2004i): " Consciousness and the ‘Zombie-Within’: A Functional Analysis of the Blind sight Evidence", in Identifying the Mind: selected papers of U. T. Place, edited by G. Graham and E. R. Valentine, Oxford university press.
Place, U. T. (2004j): "A Pilgrim's Process? From Mystical Experience to Biological Consciousness", in Identifying the Mind: selected papers of U. T. Place, edited by G. Graham and E. R. Valentine, Oxford university press.
Putnam, H. (1975): "The Meaning of ‘Meaning’", in Philosophical Papers: Mind, Language and Reality, Vol. 2, Cambridge University Press.
Quine, W. V. (1951): "Two Dogmas of Empiricism", in Philosophical Review, Vol. 60, No. 1.
Schlick, M. (2002): "The Future of Philosophy", in Philosophy of Science: Contemporary Readings, edited by Y. Balashov and A. Rosenberg, Routledge, London and New York.
Searle, J. R. (1958): "Proper Names", in Mind, New Series, Vol. 67, No. 266.
Smart, J. J. C. (1959): "Sensations and Brain Processes", in Philosophical Review, Vol. 68, No. 2, Duke University Press.
Smith, G. E. (2004): "The Methodology of the Principia", in the Cambridge Companion to Newton, edited by I. B. Cohen & G. E. Smith, Cambridge University Press.
 
CAPTCHA Image