Discuss at least two theories which hold that a mental state is Essay

Discuss at least two theories which hold that a mental state is nothing more than than nearly sort of physical state - Essay ExampleThere are two important movements that provide an answer to these questions, i.e. demeanorism and identity theory. It is in my dispute that despite the enigma of the human mind, behaviorism and the identity theory, both attempt to offer a rational explanation for the nature and identity of mental phenomena. behavioristic psychology Behaviorism is generally regarded as the heap that reduces mental states to the physical states of the body, specifically to that of the bodys behaviors. Thus, behaviorists have argued that mental states and processes are really nothing more than behavior or dispositions (Heil, 1993, p.174). A behavior is understood here as an external physical movement of the body, and thus includes verbal behavior, but excludes brain activities. Moreover, behavior is either actual or dispositional. Accordingly, all mental states are bel ieved to be behavioral dispositions, which may or may not be actualized. As such, even out if there is no actual behavior that corresponds to a mental expression, the claim of behaviorism holds because it necessarily has a corresponding behavioral disposition. So to have a mental state is thus to behave or to be disposed to behave in a certain way. For instance, to be in pain is to bear witness behaviors such as crying, wincing, saying ouch, etc. ... Expressions containing mental terms such as I desire to finish school, I am in pain, and I believe that it is going to rain, are accordingly, logically equivalent to, or reducible to some expressions containing only behavioral terms such as I will attend my classes regularly, I am inclined to cry, and I will bring my umbrella when I get out of the house. In short, in this placement, mental terms are defined in terms of behaviors. It is this notion of behaviorism that will be of concern to us. Logical behaviorism is often attributed t o the view of the mind that Gilbert Ryle (1965) advanced as an alternative to Cartesian dualism, which he refers to as the ghost-in-the machine doctrine. Ryle argues that this doctrine commits a fallacy called the category mistake, i.e. when one falsely takes something as belonging to a certain category that it does not belong to. The famous example given by Ryle is when someone understands the discussion university as referring to a particular entity in the very same way that the words buildings, members of the faculty, students, and the like, refer to particular entities. In the same way, so argues Ryle, Descartes mistakes the word mind as belonging to the same category as the word body, and hence believes that the word mind refers to an entity of some kind in the same way that the word body does. Though mind and body refer to different kinds of entities, the fact that they do refer to entities puts them in the same category. Logical behaviorism, as noted above, is the view that mental states are nothing but behaviors. This view lends itself to two