Essay Database

The following is a short essay about dualism and its criticisms and about physicalism and its criticisms. Arguments for dualism One argument for dualism, especially dualistic interactionism, is that it is a very common sense view. Some developmental psychologists claim to have shown that dualism is commonsensical for very young children as well. This is obviously not "proof", but it suggests we should at least have a reason for abandoning dualism. A second argument is …

…theory that fits the evidence. The principle, put this way, is hard to deploy in practice. According to physicalists it is clear that theories which require no non-physical entities to explain mental phenomena are preferable to ones that do. Since the development of an argument for physicalism employing Occam's razor requires answering objections that consciousness and intentionality cannot be reduced to physical entities, we'll turn to physicalistic critiques of the above arguments for substance dualism.