From various online authors, chruchland, and some of my notes

Arguments for dualism

1. Argument from religion - analogy of the belief in dualism of body-mind with th
e belief that we have a mortal body and an immortal soul
Criticism: 1) historically using religion to explain science failed
2) social forces determines which religion to choose
2. Argument from introspection - assumes that our faculty of inner observation o
r introspection reveals the true nature of things just like using our senses or
even better.
Criticism: sensory observations fail; why would introspection be better at descr
ibing reality unless it is something different
3. Argument from irreducibility - reasoning (eg. Language and Mathematics) are m
ental phenomena without physical explanation
Criticism:
1) Materialistic Problem: How to explain belief in pure physical form?
2) Dualistic Problem: there are some physical explanations(eg. calculato
rs); until dualists can prove that physical reduction is impossible the playing
field is even
4. Argument from parapsychology - Telepathy (mind
reading), precognition (seeing the future), telekinesis
(thought control of material objects), and clairvoyance
(knowledge of distant objects)
Criticism: there is no trustworthy evidence that there are such phenomenato supp
ort parapsychology
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Arguments against Dualism
1.Occam's razor (strong argument but not decisive)
ARG: ---> physicality has less entities than dualist ---> physical and non physi
cal
Counter-consideration: This is not yet a decisive point against dualism, since n
either dualism nor materialism can yet explain
all of the phenomena to be explained. Slight edge on materialism because physica
l matter exists while spiritual existence is debatable
2. explanatory impotence (not decisive)
ARG: incapability of dualists in explaining what constitutes the mind stuff comp
ared to explanatory success of materialism
Counter-consideration: the reason why science has explanatory success because ph
ysical things are easier to study compared to mind stuff
3. neural dependence (almost decisive)
ARG: brain injuries have an effect on a person's rational thinking because ratio

nal thinking depends on neurological activities

Counter-consideration: the brain is the medium in which mind and body interact
Q: How can the mind and brain be separate if evidently concussions changes the m
ental states of people?
A: Evidently brain injuries have an effect on a person's rational thinking becau
se rational thinking depends on neurological activities
4. evolutionary history (strongest argument against dualism)
ARG: humans were created from a pure physical process and we should learn to acc
ept that conclusion: materialism is accepted by the professional community
Counter-consideration: Irreducibility of things to physical matter and things wi
thout physical explanations. Who created the complexity of creating physical mat
ter? God the creator.