Week 6 — The Mind-Body Problem

Why this matters

A nursing student asking how a person's pain relates to a brain scan and a computer science major asking what a help-desk chatbot understands both face this week's question: what is a mind?

In plain language

This week asks what a mind is, and how it is connected to your body and your brain. One answer, substance dualism (the view that mind and body are two different kinds of thing), says your mind is not made of matter at all. Another answer, the identity theory (the view that mental states are brain states), says a pain or a thought is a process in the brain. A third answer, functionalism (the view that mental states are defined by what they do), says a mind is a pattern of jobs that a brain, or maybe a machine, could carry out. You test each answer with a famous thought experiment, and your goal is to state each side fairly, not to pick a winner.

• Already covered: Weeks 1–5 gave you counterexamples, standard form and validity, and the questions of what is real and what you can know.
• This week: substance dualism, the identity theory, functionalism, the Turing test, the Chinese room, Nagel's bat, and Jackson's Mary.
• How they connect: you test each view with Week 2's tools and a single well-chosen case.
• Where we're going next: Week 7 asks what makes you the same person over time.

Focus

What is a mind, and how is it related to a body, a brain, or a machine?

By the end of this module, you should be able to:

• [ ] state the three mind-body positions at their strongest
• [ ] key Dataset B's arguments 2 and 8 for validity
• [ ] reconstruct the Chinese room and give the systems reply
• [ ] explain what Nagel's bat and Jackson's Mary ask

To-do

Plan your week

1. Read Chapter 6 (~40–50 minutes), then the lecture and slides.
2. Work the lecture tutorial (60–90 minutes).
3. Do the practice exercises (15–25 minutes).
4. Do the Philosophy Workshop (about 90 minutes), discussion, and assignment.
5. Take the quiz.

This week's checkpoint: credit the Chinese room to its author and say what it is meant to show.

You've got this

Take it in order, and ask your instructor early if stuck.

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