D4's Theory Of Behaviorism

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Given the patient’s situation as mentioned in the introduction, I think it is more reasonable to assume she only has certain mental states, as supported by the fourth and third doctor’s different theories on the woman’s situation, and ultimately towards the mind-body problem, which I speculate are referring to the theories of behaviorism and physicalism, respectively.

I believe that the fourth doctor’s opinion supports my thesis because he claims: “Having mental states… It’s just behaving or being disposed to behave in ways that constitute having mental states.” (Topic intro.) I interpret D4’s statement to be inspired by the theory of behaviorism, with D4’s words being a very brief description of the theory itself; mental states are reducible …show more content…

An alternate view would be Doctor Three’s views on the patient. I think that D3’s view is influenced by the theory of physicalism. Once again I shall refer to the crucial point in the scenario; the patient does not actually possess a ‘normal’ human brain. If that is the case, the patient cannot have human brain states, and would have some, but not all of her mental states. How strong of an argument this makes depends on the composition of the brain itself (which is not outlined directly, but can be inferred or subject to example.) Keep in mind, the definition of a ‘human brain’ is quite subjective as well; for the purposes of these cases, I consider a human brain to be something composed of human material (human neurons, axons, etc.) Case one: if the brain was only structurally different (ie: cube-shaped) but is still composed of human neurons, I think it can be inferred that the patient can still access her full range of mental states as her brain is still human. Case two: the other end of the spectrum where the patient’s brain is made from rubber; D3 would say that the patient in this case would not have mental states since the ball cannot be identified with brain states as it does not have the structural components a brain needs to work and ultimately, D3 would say that the patient does not mental states. This leaves the patient in two extremes; either she has mental states or she does not. It is at this point where D3 thinks that “her ‘brain’, though not a normal human one, can realize mental states.” This provides the two extreme cases with a middle point between the two extremes. D3’s point is the idea that brain states can be multiply realizable, meaning that brain states can still exist even if the

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