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Philosophy of Mind

3 dot points, in syllabus order. Each dot point has a focused answer, with exam-style questions and worked answers where available.

Are mental states just behaviour, or are they defined by the functional role they play?

Behaviourism and functionalism as accounts of the mental

Two further responses to the mind-body problem in TASC Unit 2: logical behaviourism, which reduces mental talk to behaviour, and functionalism, which defines mental states by their causal role, with key objections.

6 min read →

If mind and body are distinct substances, how can they possibly affect each other?

Substance dualism and the problem of mind-body interaction

Descartes' substance dualism and the mind-body problem in TASC Unit 2, explaining the interaction problem and the dualist responses of interactionism, occasionalism and parallelism.

6 min read →

Is the mind simply the brain, with mental events nothing more than physical processes?

Monism and physicalism: the mind as the brain

The monist physicalist response to the mind-body problem in TASC Unit 2, covering the mind-brain identity theory of Place and Smart, type and token identity, and the multiple realisability objection.

6 min read →