Philosophy of Mind

Intermediate

Undergraduate level. These articles introduce the formal machinery, work through the standard results, and set out the main positions with the objections that stuck to them.

Substance and Property DualismPlanned
Two ways of splitting mind from matter, and the pressure that causal closure puts on both
15 min
Behaviourism and Its FailurePlanned
Analysing mental talk into behavioural dispositions, and why belief and desire cannot be separated for that purpose
14 min
Identity Theory: Type and TokenPlanned
Identifying pain with a brain state, and the retreat from type identity to token identity
15 min
Functionalism and Multiple RealizabilityPlanned
Defining mental states by their causal role, and the octopus case that made type identity look parochial
17 min
Intentionality and Mental ContentPlanned
How a state can be about something that does not exist, and what fixes which thing it is about
17 min
Folk Psychology and Eliminative MaterialismPlanned
Treating belief and desire as the posits of a theory, and the argument that the theory is false
18 min
The Computational Theory of MindPlanned
Thinking as symbol manipulation, the systematicity argument for a language of thought, and the connectionist reply
20 min
The Chinese RoomPlanned
Searle's claim that symbol manipulation never yields understanding, and the replies that locate understanding elsewhere
14 min
Theories of PerceptionPlanned
Sense data, adverbialism, intentionalism, and naive realism, judged by what they say about the good case and the bad
19 min
The Knowledge Argument and Mary's RoomPlanned
A colour scientist who knows every physical fact and still learns something on leaving the black and white room
16 min
Philosophical Zombies and ConceivabilityPlanned
Running from what we can coherently imagine to what is metaphysically possible, and where that step can be blocked
18 min
Externalism About Content: Twin Earth and BurgePlanned
Two thought experiments showing that environment and community, not the head alone, fix what a thought is about
23 min
Action, Intention, and the WillPlanned
What separates an action from a mere bodily movement, and why the answer keeps coming back to what caused it
18 min
Memory, Circularity, and the Brave OfficerPlanned
Locke's memory criterion, Butler's charge that it presupposes the identity it was meant to define, and Reid's officer who both is and is not the boy
18 min