Chalmers Argues for a Theory of Mind Known as "Property

question 10

True/False

Chalmers argues for a theory of mind known as "property dualism" (also "nonreductive materialism" and "naturalistic dualism"). In this view, mental states, or properties, are distinct from physical properties, and arise from the physical properties without being reducible to, or identical to, them (and without being some kind of Cartesian substance). Philosophers like to say that this relationship between the mental and physical is one of supervenience-that is, mental properties supervene on the physical ones. This means that something possesses a mental property in virtue of having a physical property. The mental property depends on the physical one, arises from it, but is not identical to it. If true, reductive materialism must be false. "This failure of materialism," says Chalmers, "leads to a kind of dualism: there are both physical and nonphysical features of the world." Mental properties are features of the world that are "over and above the physical features of the world."
-Chalmers rejects naturalistic dualism.

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Definitions:

Method of Concomitant Variations

A research method where one observes the effects of the deliberate variation of one factor on a phenomenon to identify causation.

Necessary Condition

A necessary condition is a condition that must be present for an event or state of affairs to occur; without it, the event or state cannot exist.

Sufficient Condition

A condition or set of conditions that, if satisfied, ensures that a certain statement or outcome must be true.

Method of Concomitant Variations

A scientific principle stating that if two variables vary together in a consistent manner, then one may be a cause of the other.