Dueling Dualism Essay

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.

Discuss Stevenson’s presentation of duality in ‘The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’.

The mind and the body are very controversial entities that has caused philosophical debate between dualists and physicalists. Common knowledge states that the mind inevitably will affect what the body does. The mind and body issue is a question of what the nature of the mind is and how it relates to the body. The mind is the psychological aspect of your being as in your mental state. The body is all physical parts of you: your height, weight, color. With all this in mind, we can use Leibniz’s Law to make an argument supporting either a physicalist or dualist point of view. I will be

As defined by Dalton Conley, sex, sexuality, and gender are three different things. Gender is constructed around femininity and masculinity, therefore society dictates the social norms for gender (Conley 283). Society has created the notion of femininity and masculinity. Society tells us how to be feminine or masculine and how to display these characteristics to the world, thus, making it a social construct. These notions are social constructs because they are human inventions that are widely agreed upon and differ throughout cultures, they also change over time within the context of society.

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.

Classical dualism has a few points that are unclear. Swinburne says that you have a body under your control. The case presented of having your old mind in a new body and brain is questionable. Will you still have your morality in your new body and brain? Will you still have the same calling as you did in your old body and brain? Will you still have the same religious beliefs? These are all points that Swinburne failed to debate.

So what is a binary? A binary, or dichotomy is basically two things that are in contrast of one another. According to the Merriam Webster’s dictionary, a binary is defined as, “something made of or based on two things or parts.” Right from birth, one is genderized as female of male, and then boys or girls. Many need to question the limits of binaries in our culture and resist the urge to impose ones categories to influence others. One needs to visualize the results of this because it closes minds of others to believe that there are more than two dominant genders.

     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).

The idea of social construction, to put it simply, is that our society creates norms to categorize people. The norms created usually coincide with the time period in which they were made, however, the expectations of society change over time. For example, fifty years ago people were still being shunned for interracial relationships, however, in current times, it’s not that big of a deal. Constructing norms has had a very prosperous run in society, ideals that were created years and years ago are still being held as fact today; specifically, those regarding gender. If we use animals as a comparison, we can realize that sexuality and gender in humans is a socially constructed idea that is used to put people into categories to fit the ideals of

“The social construction of gender comes out of the general school of thought entitled social constructionism. Social constructionism proposes that everything people "know" or see as "reality" is partially, if not entirely, socially situated. To say that something is socially constructed does not mitigate the power of the concept. These basic theories of social constructionism can be applied to any issue of study pertaining to human life, including gender. This is

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

In reviewing John Lukacs, The Duel, I noticed that the author has other intentions in mind besides the facts. Lukacs gives a very precise account of the actualy events during those eighty days but in my opinion he wants the reader to grab the bigger concepts. One of these concepts is that Lukacs wants the reader to honestly consider just how close the Allies came to losing the war. Another of these notions is the idea that the main difference between Churchill and Hitler concerned nationalism versus patriotism and a third idea is just how greatly history can be effected by the courageous decisions of a few people.Lukacs makes strong mention of how close Hitler came to victory.

Dualism is a broad term that can encompass many areas within philosophy itself. In aspect to metaphysics, it classifies the types of entities in the world into two subcategories, physical and non physical substance. While this may appear to be a very wide and ambiguous opinion, it becomes very specific in regards to our own existence. Paul Churchland puts it very explicitly in his book Matter and Consciousness, and defines dualism as the idea that, “the essential nature of conscious intelligence resides in something nonphysical” (Churchland 1). Though dualism is a highly regarded and popular view on the state of existence, its core arguments present an array of problems that detract from the credibility of its

The gender binary describes a western social construct in which people are categorized based on gender; depending on the anatomy of an individual they are deemed either male or female and are thus expected to exhibit a feminine or masculine personality. As a social construct birthed in the western world, the intention of the gender binary is to create an understanding of the different individuals in our society in a way that discriminates against those considered female, those that do not identify with the binary or do not identify with the gender they are assigned at birth, and those that experience same-sex attraction. When considering the gender binary as a system of oppression, it is essential that one considers other institutions that oppress people – particularly ones in the west—to avoid a reductionist approach to the discrimination directly associated with the gender binary. To properly understand the gender binary, it is important to keep in mind that it was created to categorize people, while also working with and maintaining other systems of oppression as one itself.

Is gender binary universal or socially constructed? That is going to be the big question we ask ourselves today. Many people may have a different point of view and say it's this or that but today I will break it down how I see it in my eyes and will go in depth to support my idea. I will define three special words today which will be gender, gender binary and social construction. While going into depth with the article “Night to His Day”: The Social Construction of Gender” Lorber 1994. This consists of informing us that gender binary could be universal or social construction. Lorber believes that gender binary is universal for the individual and a social construction to society. I'll go more into depth with that concept in paragraph three. Also going into depth and in detail about the meaning of gender to society and the individual. Lastly, explain that gender binary could be universal or a social construction. Let's begin with the first concept of gender and gender binary.