Can Substance Dualism Be Defended Essay - 1919 Words

Can Substance Dualism Be Defended? Substance dualism is a never ending argument in the Philosophy world as it’s been going on for decades. It is the view that the universe contains two important types of entity which is mental and material. The structure of this paper is that four main argument leads to one conclusion. Firstly, I’ll argue about Descartes’s ‘separability argument’ which stands as the definition of Substance Dualism. Secondly, I’ll argue that mental and physical have different and perhaps irreconcilable properties. An argument is not complete without a counter argument which in this case the â€Å"pairing† problem that exists in Descartes theory is highlighted and where is the interaction of material and immaterial takes†¦show more content†¦Leading to conclusion that substance dualism is not a useful or applicable theory of mind (Kim, 2005). The argument above is valid argument from Jaegwon Kim. But first there is a problem with Kim’s argument. Kim concludes that it is not possible for souls to interact casually with material substance â€Å"but if the modality governing is either metaphysical or logical then it would be possible to demonstrate the ontological impossibility of soul-body causal interaction† (Jehle, 2006, p. 569). With that we can wave some of his argument as false premises, but that couldn’t be counted for as a reply for his critic therefore the counter argument for Kim’s critics needs a brief account of causations. Assume that causality is grounded in properties possessed by objects. At a envisage properties are dispositions that can confer ‘causal powers’ on an object. Therefore, the mutual manifestations of reciprocal dispositional partners are the casual relation. Take salt crystal as an example, which dissolves in a drop of water. The dissolving of the salt c rystal is a mutual manifestation of the power that water has to dissolve salt. This will account for Kim’s critics, when Kim’s two souls, Z and Y, both act at time T and only a brings about a change in X, Z brings about this change because X possess the specific property that allows it to be the dispositional partner of Z. Y, on the other hand, basicallyShow MoreRelatedDualism And Its Effects On Society998 Words   |  4 PagesThe concept of Dualism has been around for ages, basically, dualism is the idea that mental phenomena are, in some respects, non-physical, or that the mind and body are not identical. By default, it is all too common that someone has a broad sense of the opposite of dualism. That is, the average Joe would most likely think that sensations and other mental states are entirely physical. 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