Dualism versus physicalism

Document Type:Thesis

Subject Area:Philosophy

Document 1

In my view, dualism is an effective concept of understanding the puzzle. The general assertion is that a human being is made up of both a physical system and a non-physical system that is the soul and the mind. As such, the central nervous system, the brain and soul all together make up a human being. This study seeks to establish if human beings are made up only the physical component or both the physical and nonphysical component. On the other hand, physicalism opposes this idea of dualism. For example, when a philosophy class has only one lazy student that the whole class knows. An assignment is given to the class and it turns out that one student fails to submit the assignment when it is due.

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Here it is very easy for the students to relate the failure of submission to the student that is known to be lazy. We can conclude that if two things have exactly the same character, then what is true for one holds for the other. This analysis lies within the principle of indiscernibility of identical. The substance dualists argue that human beings remain the same because they have souls. Physicalists on the other hand dispute the existence of the personal identity. Conclusion In summary, I dispute physicalism because of lack of account of important features. In as much as it is in a position to justify some universal concepts, it at times fails to account based on genuine justifications. On the other hand, though the concept of dualism is not in itself sufficient, it explains the composition of human beings better.

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