Dualism

It's all about how to relate mind to matter: Are they somehow the SAME

kind of thing? In that case there is just ONE kind of thing, and you are

a monist.

Or are they two different kinds of things? In that case you are a

dualist.

What is matter? It's that hard and soft and liquid and gaseous stuff all

around, including the tiny bits, like electrons and phtons, and the huge

ones, like stars. "Matter" includes all the physical forces, like

electromagnetism, gravity, and of course properties like mass, momentum,

etc. Matter is not the problem.

What is mind? Feelings. We all know what it's like to have feelings:

pain, fear, seeing yellow, understanding English, knowing that

2 + 2 = 4, wanting a glass of water, flexing a finger: For all these

things, there's something they FEEL LIKE, and having a mind is just

having those feelings, often also called consciousness, awareness,

experience.

The mind/body or mind/matter problem is: What are feelings? If you are a

monist you think feelings are some kind of matter (perhaps like

magnetism?); if you are a dualist, you think feelings are something

else.

Both dualism and monism come in different flavours. One form of dualism

thinks mind can influence matter (movement vs telekinesis); other kinds

of dualists just accept that feelings exist, but don't think they have

any independent causal power. This is where Libet and mental timing come

in.

Computationalism

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