Section 2.4 There Ain’t No Such Things as Ghosts Mind as Myth

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.