Dualism: A Short Story

In his writings, “A Contemporary Defense of Dualism,” J.P. Moreland argues the point that the mind and brain are separate from each other. It seems as a quick thought that both are the same. However, the mind deals with ideas, thoughts and hopes. The brain is made up of the neural process. Throughout the entire argument, Moreland tries to prove the theory of physicalism, which is the idea that only things that exist are composed of matter. His explanation is that the soul doesn’t exist and the brain controls everything.

In the book “Dualed” by Elsie Chapman, we follow a 15 year old girl named West Grayer who lives in the city of Kersh. In this dystopian world, people are trained in advanced combat procedures and how to survive. In order to prove oneself that they are meant to live in this place, they are given an exact clone of themselves that is raised by a different family, that they must kill. West Grayer is your standard teen, long brown hair, average height, nothing to special. She lived with her brother Luc after the rest of her family died. And when Luc’s best friend, Chord, gets his assignment to kill his alt (his alternate) they go track him down. When they find him, Chord kills his alt, but not before Chord’s alt killed Luc. this sends West into

In this paper, I will examine the principal merits and challenges of René Descartes’ concept of dualism and then defend my preferred alternative among the options Paul M. Churchland discusses. After briefly defining Cartesian Dualism, I will show that its principal merits are that it is consistent with common sense and that it is able to explain phenomena that appear mental in nature. Next, I will show that its principal challenges are its failure to adequately explain how the mind and the body can causally interact, and its failure to respond to the observation that brain damage impairs the mind. Finally, I will explain why Functionalism is the best alternative to Cartesian Dualism.

In my mind, dualism is a more attractive view to take when considering the mind-brain issue. The idea that the mind is a separate entity and that it is independent of the physical body is the central point of dualism. One reason it appeals to me is because of my religion, my Catholic upbringing. Introspection is another good reason why dualism is a little more logical to me than materialism.. It logically explains why the mind and brain are separate. Also, the divisibility argument raises good points to allow dualism to appear to be the more attractive idea in my eyes.

In The Prestige, Robert Angier, perfectly shows the duality of man through his plot for revenge. Throughout the beginning of the film, viewers form the impression that Angier is to represent the “good” side of man and Borden is to represent the “evil”. However, as Angier’s plot for revenge continues, the evil in him comes undone as obsession consumes him. The most clear case of this is found at the end of the movie when Borden is in jail for the “murder” of Angier. Angier manipulates Borden telling him his child will be an orphan unless he gives up the secrets to his magic tricks.

According to J.P. Moreland in his argument for dualism, he states that humans are composed of both an immaterial substance and a physical substance. Moreland notes that there are contrasting differences between the minds and the brains and that they are ultimately separate entities. By defending dualism, Moreland seeks to make nonbelievers believe in immaterial souls, while discrediting materialism. We can look at the arguments in which Moreland uses to support the argument of dualism and belief that the mind and brain are separate entities.

The dualism of Nazi Germany makes it difficult to ascertain the level of Nazification present at the state-level prior to 1935. John Herz writes that the ‘underlying purposes and tendency of the originators and leaders of the Nazi regime was to create a completely party-dominated and party-permeated state and society’. However, Herz goes on to argue that this desire to completely restructure government institutions and personnel was soon recognised as being detrimental to the plan to rapidly gear Germany for war. Therefore, the Nazi leadership chose ‘to use, modify, and adapt existing institutions to its specific purposes and policies, while profiting from their efficiency and technical skill.’ This was especially true for the upper civil service, the highly experienced ministerial bureaucracy, whose members the Nazi Party could mostly not replace without damaging the effectiveness of German administration. As a result, a ‘dualism’ between the German state and the Nazi Party was perpetuated in which many state institutions continued to function largely un-Nazified—especially in the years prior to 1935.

The mind is perhaps the most fascinating part of the human body due to its complexity and ability to rationalize. In essence, the mind-body problem studies the relation of the mind to the body, and states that each human being seems to embody two unique and somewhat contradictory natures. Each human contains both a nature of matter and physicality, just like any other object that contains atoms in the universe. However, mankind also is constituted of something beyond materialism, which includes its ability to rationalize and be self-aware. This would imply that mankind is not simply another member of the world of matter because some of its most distinctive features cannot be accounted for in this manner. There are obvious differences between physical and mental properties. Physical properties are publically accessible, and have weight, texture, and are made of matter. Mental properties are not publically accessible, and have phenomenological texture and intentionality (Stewart, Blocker, Petrik, 2013). This is challenging to philosophers, because man cannot be categorized as a material or immaterial object, but rather a combination of both mind and body (Stewart, Blocker, Petrik, 2013). Man embodies mind-body dualism, meaning he is a blend of both mind and matter (Stewart, Blocker, Petrick, 2013). The mind-body problem creates conflict among philosophers, especially when analyzing physicalism in its defense. This paper outlines sound

Mind-body dualism is usually seen as the central issue in philosophy of the mind. The problem with mind-body dualism is that it is unknown whether the mind really is a separate entity from the human body as Descartes states in his argument, or whether the mind is the brain itself. Descartes believed that in a person existed two major components, the physical body and the nonphysical body which was called the mind or soul. As a scientist, Descartes believed in mechanical theories of matter, however, he was also very religious and did not believe people could merely be mechanical creatures that ran like “clockwork.” And so, it was Descartes who argued that the mind directed thoughts. To account for this, he split the world into two parts,

The role of law and government is to ensure that the natural liberties of the people are protected and that the nation-state, itself, is safeguarded from harm. To warrant such functionality, a government must follow two principles: to recognize the omnipresence of antithetical dualities and to maintain the mandate of its governed subjects. It is noteworthy to mention that both principles must be present for a government and its law to be effective. If, by any chance, one is absent, the government and its established laws are rendered useless and of nothingness.

I found your test results to be rather funny, only because I scored 17 points in Empiricist, 19 points in Cartesian Rationalist 18 points in Platonic Dualist and finally 20 points in Kantian Structuralist. Regardless of my test results, after reading the Descriptions, I instantly saw myself more as a Cartesian Rationalist. However, after reading your post I was able to understand Kantian theory a lot better. For example when you stated that, “If I have a bad experience with something or someone, my judgment will be different the second time I get involved with the same thing or person.”

To a Dualist, they believe that the mind and the body are two separate things that run parallel to each other and that is how they interact with each other. A Dualist would say that a belief is a direction that we act upon and a desire is a goal that drives us to do what we want to do in our lives. The notion that a belief is a direction can be explained in the part of the example that Bob believes that there is pizza in the fridge because he knew the direction of where he was headed to, to go get the pizza out of the fridge. The same can be said similar to the fact that Bob desires to have pizza because the goal in this example was to obtain pizza from the fridge. Both the belief and desire in this example were achieved and satisfied because

One of the most vital concepts incorporated into The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is the representation and depiction of the duality of mankind. Jekyll works to find a solution which will separate him into his reckless, immoral persona and his respectable, Victorian self. After consumption, this potion causes him to completely transform into a man who is known as Hyde. As Hyde, he can express himself in immoral, evil ways. This not only includes moral and immoral wants but rational and irrational wants. Not only does this transformation enable him to keep his good reputation even while he does horrid, unacceptable things, but it allows him to do things which he most likely would not even

     For centuries philosophers have debated on monism and dualism, two different philosophical views of the human person. Philosophers have been trying to decipher whether the person is made up of the mind, the body, or both. Monists hold the belief that existence is purely based upon one ultimate “category of being” this means that either the person is made up of only the body or only the mind (Morris p155). Dualists hold the belief that existence is based upon the body as well as the mind and its mental properties (Morris p155).

In this paper I will be discussing the philosophical perspective of Dualism. The concept of dualism assumes that there are two separate entities such as the physical matter (Body) and the spiritual being (Soul). As we are all familiar with Body which is a physical structure which carries some simple and complex processes, but for many of us soul is something which we are not familiar with and according to Dualism soul is a spiritual part which cannot be seen but is within us. As Socrates says “A real person cannot be harmed” and for Socrates the soul was the real person as he believed there is much more than this life.