This Is Philosophy of Mind

Monday, July 18, 2022

This 3-page comic, "Mary the Futuristic Super Scientist" written and drawn by Pete Mandik, discusses Frank Jackson's famous Mary thought experiment from his paper "Epiphenomenal Qualia."

Video discussion of Chapter 2: Substance Dualism. Video by alfsvoid, called "Can Reason Prove We Have a Soul?"

Second Edition Coming in September 2022

The second edition of This Is Philosophy of Mind: An Introduction by Pete Mandik is expected out in September 2022. The main differences between the two editions is the addition of two chapters.

The first new chapter is "Chapter 16: The 4E Approach," covering various proposals to study the mind as a phenomenon that exemplifies one or more of the following four "E's": embodiment, enaction, embeddedness, and extension.

The second new chapter is "Chapter 17: Futuristic Directions," covering futuristic mind-relevant topics such as the technological singularity, posthumans, and mind uploading.

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Frank Jackson - The Knowledge Argument - Mary's Room - Mary the Super-Sc...

Short video illustrating Frank Jackson's knowledge argument against physicalism and his related thought experiment of Mary, the colorblind super scientist. Philosopher Galen Strawson explains.

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Short-essay questions from my 2017 syllabus

I'm gearing up for the Spring 2017 semester of my own philosophy of mind course at William

Paterson University, and here are the seven short-essay questions the students will be writing on throughout the semester:

What is the difference between substances and properties, and what is at least one argument for property dualism, and what is at least one objection to that argument?
What is panpsychism, what is at least one argument for it, and what is at least one objection to that argument?
What is behaviorism, one argument for it, and one argument against it?
What is the distinction between types and tokens, and how is it used to spell out the key difference between mind-brain identity theory and functionalism?
What is the relevance of each of the three following notions in arguing for eliminative materialism: scientific realism, degenerate research program, and folk psychology?
What are the following four ideas and how are they related: swampman, Twin Earth, externalism, and internalism?
What is the difference between first-order and higher-order mental states, and what relevance do they have in explaining consciousness?