Module 2 Reading/Discussion Questions 1.Compare and contrast the views of John Searle and Rene Descartes on dualism. Rene Descartes believed in substance dualism or simply dualism. This dualism consisted of the belief that reality is composed to two substances, mind, which is immaterial essence, and body, which is material essence. This means that all our thoughts and feelings are immaterial while our body exists in material space and at some point in the body, the two substances interact. John Searle believed in a dualism known as supervenience theory. Unlike Descartes, Searle believes that there is a mental and a physical which exist as two aspects of a single substance. This means that the mental supervenes upon the physical. Both Searle and Descartes’ views, although different, can make sense of the notion that our thoughts, feelings, and intentions exist but are not the same as material objects. 2.Compare and contrast the views of George Berkeley and Thomas Hobbes on the mind. George Berkeley believed in idealism, which contends that the only things that are real are ideas. He also states that the world is composed of two things: ideas and minds. To be an idea, it must be perceived. He also states that objects continue to endure even when we do not perceive them because there exists an Infinite Mind- God. God is an infinite mind that perceives all things and to exist is to be an idea in the mind of God. Contrastingly, according to Hobbes, the only things that exist are “bodies in motion.” He believed that thoughts, ideas, and feelings are all physical entities explained by motions in the brain. 3.Does the materialist position imply a determinist position on the possibility of free will? Explain. The materialist position does imply a determinist position on the possibility of free will. The determinist position states that al actions and events are determined necessarily. There is no free will and freedom of the will is an illusion. The materialist position states that the mind “is not something behind the behavior of the body, it is simply part of that physical behavior.” Therefore, if the mind is not in control of the body’s actions, then those actions must be pre-determined.
