Should We Accept Physicalism?
Are People Completely Physical Substances?
Instructions:
Essay Question: Should we accept physicalism? Specifically, are people completely physical substances? The relevant material is Richard Swinburne Ch 1 and 2, lecture slides and videos, and Quining Qualia. You may focus on defending physicalism, property dualism, or substances dualism, but limit the discussion to the material discussed in the first two chapters of RS, Are We Bodies or Souls?
To answer this question you must define: substance, property, event, and mental and physical as they apply to each of these. You should also discuss the plausibility of at least some of: identity theory, mind-body supereminence, and functionalism. You might find it helpful to also discuss Mary the color scientist (lecture online) or Quining Qualia (Dennett and Lecture).
An excellent paper is one that states all the relevant arguments clearly and concisely (e.g., Swinburne argues…), and also presents, entertains, and either accepts or rejects cogent objections or counterexamples to the author’s arguments under consideration (e.g., I think Swinburne fails to adequately disprove the possibility of multiple reliability of the mental by different types of physical states. You may use the class lectures and assigned readings, but you are discouraged from using other sources. In any case, all materials consulted should be cited using parenthetical in-text citations (for example, APA or Chicago style).