Mary Jackson Physicalism Analysis

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.

Mary Jackson was an African American mathematician who worked for NASA as an aerospace engineer. She helped launch the space program and worked for women’s working rights. This is the story of the life of Mary Jackson.

Within the realm of philosophy, new ideas are formed, applauded, often questioned, and most carefully analyzed. These new ideas are what provoke thought, and help move progressive thinkers forward. This can be said to be true in Frank Jackson’s case, with his essay “What Mary Didn’t Know”. Jackson presents an argument that challenges the thoughts of physicalism, physicalism being, “…the challenging thesis that [the actual world] is entirely physical” (Jackson 291). Jackson creates what he calls the ‘knowledge argument’. In his essay Jackson presents the example of Mary, a woman who lives in an entirely black and white world. She is confined to her room, and everything is controlled so that all that Mary views is black and white. It is

Mary Jackson was born April 9, 1921, Hampton, Virginia, U.S.A. She was a math genius and an aerospace engineer. most importantly she was the first African American female engineer to work and be the first flight engineers for NASA.

Shirley Jackson was born on December 14, 1916 in San Francisco, California. She was the daughter of Leslie Hardie (President of Stecher-Traung Lithograph,Inc.) and Geraldine Bugbee Jackson.

One of the most talked about concepts of philosophy is that of the mind-body problem. In short, the mind-body problem is the relationship between the mind and the body. Specifically, it’s the connection between our mental realm of thoughts, including beliefs, ideas, sensations, emotions, and our physical realm, the actual matter of which we are made up of the atoms, neurons. The problem comes when we put the emphasis on mind and body. Are the mind and body one physical thing, or two separate entities. Two arguments have stood amongst the rest, Interactionism and physicalism. Interactionism claims that mind and matter are two separate categories with a casual integration between the two. By contrast, physicalism draws from the idea that all aspects of the human body are under one physical being, there are no nonphysical connections that come into play. While both state a clear and arguable statement regarding mind-body problem, Interactionism gives a more plausible answer to the mind-body problem because although it may seem like we are tied as one, our minds have a subconscious that influence our thoughts, actions, ideas, and beliefs, which is completely independent from the realm of our physical matter.

Physicalism is a philosophical theory that attempts to solve the mind-body problem with its explanation of the results of the interactions between our brains and our bodies. Physicalism explains that everything in the universe is made up of

The Knowledge Argument by Jackson is one of the main threats to Physicalism. Physicalism says that everything that is or could ever exist is ultimately physical in nature. The Knowledge Argument claims that there are truths about consciousness that cannot be deduced from the complete physical truth. Lewis’ response on the other hand, disagrees with the Knowledge Argument. In this paper I will address the Knowledge Argument and Lewis’ response to it.

In the paper "Epiphenomenal Qualia," Frank Jackson presents the concept of Qualia and the knowledge argument in order to prove physicalism false. Jackson 's knowledge argument introduces a thought experiment about a neuroscientist called Mary. His thought experiment is designed to refute physicalism by showing that there is non-physical knowledge in the world. However, there are many flaws in Jackson 's thought experiment that lead to its ultimate failure in proving that physicalism is wrong, such as its appeal to a misleading intuition, the ambiguity of its premises, and the assumption that it is possible to gain all physical knowledge of color from a colorless room.

Throughout Mary Rowlandson's account of being captured by Native Americans, she mentions her family frequently; however, she hardly mentions them by name or talks about what they were like. This immediately creates a feeling of distance in the reader's mind, because it could suggest many things about what her family was like before they got separated. She also shows us what looks to be a great deal of distance between her and her youngest daughter Sarah who died in her arms. When Rowlandson first mentions her youngest daughter she calls her a "poor wounded babe" (130) which suggests that there is a distance between the two. However, this may not be the way that the events actually happened because she wrote the narrative six years after she was reunited with her family. This opens up the idea that this may also have been a way for her to cope with losing a child in her arms. It could also show that she may have not been the only person to write the narrative. These two ideas work together because if Rowlandson does not have to write all of the painful parts, she would not have had to relive the guilt or sorrow. Mary Rowlandson makes the reader think she is distant from her family because she uses it as a way to cope with the pain of being separated from them, and to show the Puritans that being close to god will help you with any pain.

“Mary’s Room Thought Experiment” goes against the idea of Physicalism and I will explain why it is so by laying out reasons in my paper further explaining that Mary does learns something new when she escapes her black and white world for this first time and finally I will evaluate the intuition this thought experiment invokes by providing to a counterargument to my position. Physicalism is the belief that “all facts are physical facts”. Physical facts are facts about the world that we can learn in science text books. Such facts include, for example: Red light is about 650 nm.

In the article the main point seems to be the fact that, for example, Mary would see red for the first time she would be learning something. However, physicalism is not threatened merely by the fact Mary learns something. The factor disproving physicalism is the fact Mary learns something new about the object that is red. For example she can see a tomato is now read. Her teachings showed her all physical attributes to the tomato and she would know everything about it. The problem is that she had no idea what red was until she saw red, therefore she did not know everything physical about the tomato. If physicalism were true, Mary would have known exactly what the red tomato looked like before she saw it, including the redness it displayed.

February 10, 1675 was a sorrowful day for Mary Rowlandson’s hometown (Lancaster). Indians came and destroyed their town showing no remorse. Many were killed and wounded. Some were taken captive. Among those captive is a women named Mary Rowlandson. Throughout her captivity she kept a journal of all her removals and interactions she had with the Indians.

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

Person descriptions. Philosopher Frank Jackson, an anti-physicalist, proposes the knowledge argument against physicalism, which goes as follows: