The following essay will be focusing on Armstrong’s idea of a casual concept and how mental states could potentially be casual concepts through various example and analysis.
David. M. Armstrong starts his paper focusing on what philosophy can do to contribute to solve the mind/body problem. Before going in to Armstrong’s argument it is crucial to mention what is the mind body problem. The mind body problem is the problem of explaining how mental states, events and processes (like beliefs, actions and thinking) are related to the physical states, events and processes.
Armstrong’s argues that “is our concept of a mental state such that it is an intelligible hypothesis that mental states are physical states of the brain” (81) this means that mental …show more content…
This is not to be confused with substance concepts which are concepts of things in terms of what they are constituted of what (what they are made of) an example of substance concepts is water and atom.
Whereas an example of mental concepts as casual concepts is that I have a sensation (or mental state) of being cold. I go look for a blanket in the closet. Mental state of being cold caused my behavior to look for a blanket. This example is fairly simple. However mental concepts and causes and effects can get a lot more complicated when talking about humans and other living things.
This complication is due to the fact that mental states often involve other mental states, such as beliefs, desires; purposes etc. the example mentioned above could be made more complicated to show how complicated mental states could get. In the example provided above it involves
David. M. Armstrong starts his paper focusing on what philosophy can do to contribute to solve the mind/body problem. Before going in to Armstrong’s argument it is crucial to mention what is the mind body problem. The mind body problem is the problem of explaining how mental states, events and processes (like beliefs, actions and thinking) are related to the physical states, events and processes.
Armstrong’s argues that “is our concept of a mental state such that it is an intelligible hypothesis that mental states are physical states of the brain” (81) this means that mental …show more content…
This is not to be confused with substance concepts which are concepts of things in terms of what they are constituted of what (what they are made of) an example of substance concepts is water and atom.
Whereas an example of mental concepts as casual concepts is that I have a sensation (or mental state) of being cold. I go look for a blanket in the closet. Mental state of being cold caused my behavior to look for a blanket. This example is fairly simple. However mental concepts and causes and effects can get a lot more complicated when talking about humans and other living things.
This complication is due to the fact that mental states often involve other mental states, such as beliefs, desires; purposes etc. the example mentioned above could be made more complicated to show how complicated mental states could get. In the example provided above it involves