Minding matter

the plastic brain

pp. 159-180

in: Mario Bunge, Matter and mind, Berlin, Springer, 2010

Abstract

The philosophy of mind is the chapter of ontology that deals with the most basic and universal traits of the human mind, It can be either traditional (prescientific) or contemporary (science-oriented). The traditional philosophy of mind is, in a nutshell, the hypothesis that everything mental happens in the immaterial mind. This is the view of shamans and priests, as well as that of psychoanalysts, psychics, and New Age cultists. Idealist philosophers, linguists indifferent to real speakers, as well as many psychologists, concur. The famous philosopher Hilary Putnam (1975, 291) put it memorably, "We could be made of Swiss cheese and it wouldn't matter." And the founder of possible-worlds metaphysics denied the identity of mental states and brain states because one might imagine a brain state that is not a mental state, as well as a mental state existing without the corresponding brain state (Kripke 1971, 162–163). Thus, the fact that zombies are conceivable is used to prop up a philosophy of mind indifferent to the science of mind.