Overall: Write and essay between 4 and 6 pages long, double-spaced, 12 point font.
Topic One. Descartes’ Arguments for Substance Dualism
According to Descartes he can find differences in essence between the mind and the brain/body which prove the mind and brain/body are not the same thing. Minds are essentially thinking things and material things are essentially spatial (“extended”).
He offers two discussions, one in meditation two and one in meditation six (he also summarizes meditation 2 in 6). The first concerned his famous search for absolute certainty and the second is this:
“…that there is a great difference between mind and body, inasmuch as body is by nature always divisible, and the mind is entirely indivisible. For, as a matter of fact, when I consider the mind, that is to say, myself inasmuch as I am only a thinking thing, I cannot distinguish in myself any parts…”
The focus of this essay is to explain Descartes’ discussions and to evaluate them: does he succeed in proving that we are not our brain but instead a nonmaterial substance? Discuss both arguments. Your essay should include, but isn’t limited to the following
Explain the method of doubt briefly and what Descartes thinks it reveals about our essential nature.
Evaluate this argument utilizing doubt for mind and brain being different .
Explain the “divisibility argument” in the quote above and
evaluate it, does it prove that minds are not same as brains?
Topic Two: Jackson’s argument for Property Dualism and Epiphenomenalism
The aim of this essay is to explain and evaluate Jackson’s reasoning for thinking the brain has non-physical properties like the “hurtfulness of pain”, or the “quality of colour experience”.
According to Jackson the painfulness of pain is epiphenomenal.
Explain what that means and explain
why Jackson thinks the quality of pain is epiphenomenal.
Explain Jackson’s argument that the qualities of conscious states are not physical qualities of the mind by explaining his example of Fred and the red tomatoes.
Discuss, are the qualities of our experience physical and epiphenomenal?
Topic Three. Can the freewill defense solve the problem of evil?
State and explain the atheist’s argument from evil for the nonexistence of God.
State and explain the free will defense that allows for a perfect god and evil to exist
Reflect on yourself and others: why do people choose to do wrong acts? What might be the source of evil in humans?
Explain the point, and relevance to the debate, of the following quote from J.L. Mackie: “If there is no logical impossibility in a man’s freely choosing the good on one, or on several occasions, then there cannot be a logical impossibility in his freely choosing the good on every occasion.”
Adjudicate: Does the problem of evil prove there is no perfect god?
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