Question 2; Can the mind function separatly from the brain?

20 important questions on Question 2; Can the mind function separatly from the brain?

What is the separability thesis?

The idea that the mind can exist and function separately from the physical world.

Which claim did Montaigne make when he said that there is nothing you do know for certain?

He knew for certain that he does not know anything for certain.

In which way did Descartes look at the world?

He did not trust anything or anyone that had deceived him in the past.
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How can you describe the malicious almighty demon which Descartes thought might exist?

As a demon so powerful that it was able to deceive Descartes into thinking that he had a body or that there was a physical world.

What does Cognito ergo sum mean?

I think therefore I am; doubting is a way of thinking, if you doubt, you think. And if you think, you have to exist, for how else can you think? That is why Descartes concludes ''that this proposition I am, I exist, is necessarily true whenever it is put forward by me or conceived in my mind.

What is Descartes' foundation?

That he know that he exists and that he is a thinking being.

What is Descartes' second method that can help him to find truths?

Those claims that he perceives clearly and distinctly have to be true.

What is the essential property of the physical substance/res extensa?

That it is extended, which means that it is three-dimensional: it has a place in space.

How can the osul of a man determine the spritis of his body so as to produce voluntary actions?

Our bodies contain nerves and blood vessels in which small material particles move. The smallest of these particles are the animal spirits. In the pineal gland the soul and the body can influence each other: the soul has the power to move the animal spirits in the pineal gland, and these animal spirits in turn transfer the movement to the rest of the body.

What was Descartes' answer to princess Elisabeths question?

The soul can move the body in a similar way as heavyness moves a body towards the center of the earth. This does not require a collision with the body.

What was the flaw of Descartes' answer?

There is a difference between a soul, which is a substance, and heaviness, which is a property.

What was the final answer of Descartes' to the question of princess Elisabeth?

It is incomprehensible how the mind and body are able to interact with each other.

What are the two ways in which God's responsibility for the interaction can be interpreted?

Occasionalism and parallelism.

What is the problem with occasionalism and parallelism?

One mistery is replaced by another. How mind and body interact is replaced by how God takes care of the interaction between mind and body.

Electronic Voice Phenomena

The idea is that you can ''tune'' a radio or television to a channel between two stations and record the resulting white noise.

What do researchers doe in ITC-studies?

They see faces in the white noice on television.

What is a point of criticism of the EVP-studies?

It is in no way clear that the cause of white noise is supernatural.

What are verbal transformations?

Illusionary changes when the same word is repeated over and over again and subjects report many different words they have ''heard''.

Theory ladenness of perception

The phenomenon that what we perceive is influenced by a theory that tells us what to perceive.

What is the conclusion about the contribution of EVP-studies to substance dualism?

They do not provide any support for the separability thesis and therefore do not support substance dualism.

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