Substance Dualism

Dualism maintains that human beings are composed of two components:the non-physical mind/soulthe physical body

The person, the subject of experience and states of mind generally, is identical to the soul, not the body.

The soul is a substance: a continuant entity, that can exist in its own right, without dependence on anything else.

Paul Churchland: "the distinguishing claim of substance dualism is that each mind is a distinct non-physical thing, an individual 'package' of non-physical substance... an individual unit of mind-stuff quite distinct from your material body".

Consciousness is the essence of the soul... human's are continually conscious, even in the mother's womb. 

The soul - lacking extension - is in principle, indivisible. Whilst physical matter will decay and cease to exist over time the soul has no parts into which it could fall. 

Imaginability Descartes: "I could pretend that I had no body and that there was no world or place that I was in, but that I could not, for all that pretend that I did not exist"If one imagines away the feature not essential for continuing existence one is only left with a soul/consciousnessIt seems possible to imagine what it would be like to become disembodied, whilst continuing to have experiencesIt is impossible to imagine that you are not thinking/consciousYou cannot think that you are not thinking 

Counters to imaginability: Doesn't mean that he cannot conceive of himself as not thinking at some later time. Too much reliance on a first-person present tense narrative. Imaginability not necessarily a guide to possibility. I can imagine time travel. 

DoubtOnly that which is beyond doubt will qualify as knowledge Descartes believed we could not trust our senses - evil demon argumentThe only thing the demon cannot deceive us with is that we exist - "cogito ergo sum"

Leibniz's LawIf A is numerically identical with B then every property that A possesses must be possessed by B, and vice versa. A. I can doubt that my body existsB. I cannot doubt that I existErgo: I am not identical with my body - the self and the body are separate

Counter to Leibniz's LawA. I can doubt that Charles Dodgson wrote Alice in WonderlandB. I cannot doubt that Lewis Carroll wrote Alice in WonderlandErgo: Charles Dodgson is not one in the same as Lewis CarrollSimilarly Mr Hyde and Dr Jekyll 

Mind/body relation:The mind affects the body and the body affects the mindDescartes theory: pineal gland connected the brain with the soulBut how can the incorporeal soul affect and be affected by the extended physical body? Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia: "tell me how the human body can determine the movement of the animal spirits?" 

In regarding sensations Descartes noticed that when we feel pain, we do not perceive the pain from a distance... e.g. when we have hurt our foot we feel the pain in our foot not where our nerve impulses are in our brain 

Later, Descartes suggested that the mind is not merely linked up to the body, via the pineal gland, but 'united to, and as it were, mixed up with, the body"

The mind and body are fused to form an amalgam - a 'substantial union' 

Sensation were regarded as a hybrid class, midway between the pure non-physical intellection of the soul, and physical bodily happenings - 'psycho-physical unities' 

Peter Strawson: the concept of a person should be regarded as 'logically primitive'. A single entity to which both physical and mental properties attach 

But how can a soul, lacking all dimensions, be intermingled with an extended body? 

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Advantages of Substance Dualism

Mind/Body Relations Problem