Section 2.4 There Ain’t No Such Things as Ghosts

1. Section 2.4There Ain’t No SuchThings as Ghosts Mind as Myth

2. Eliminative Materialism • According to eliminative materialism, there are no mental states. • So reference to mental states should be eliminated from our theories of behavior. • Eliminativists believe that mental states are to brains as demons are to disease; they are an illusion.

3. Thought Experiment: Rorty’s Demons • Certain tribes believe that diseases are caused by demons. • We don’t share that belief because we can explain diseases without appeal to demons. • Similarly, Rorty claims, once we can explain behavior without appeal to mental states there will be no reason to believe they exist.

4. Folk Psychology • Folk psychology is our common-sense theory of the mind that explains people’s behavior in terms of mental states like belief and desire. • Eliminative materialists believe that psychologists will be able to explain people’s behavior without referring to mental states.

5. Thought Experiment:Searle’s Chevrolet Station Wagon • Physicists can explain much of reality without using folk concepts such as “golf club,” “tennis racket,” or “Chevrolet station wagon.” • But that doesn’t mean that golf clubs, tennis rackets, and Chevrolet station wagons don’t exist.

6. Subjective Knowledge • If either reductive or eliminative materialism were true, it would be possible to provide a complete description of the world in purely physical terms, for there would be no nonphysical things or properties. • But would a complete knowledge of all the physical facts about the world really give us a complete knowledge of the world?

7. Thought Experiment: Jackson’s Color-Challenged Scientist • Suppose Mary knows all the physical information about the visual process, but has never seen a colored object. • Now suppose that she sees a colored object for the first time. • Will she learn anything new? If so, it seems that physical properties are not the only properties in the world.