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Philosophy of Mind .Info

Substance Dualism

Property Dualism

Substance Monism

Mind-Body Interaction

Personal Identity

Glossary

Philosophy of Mind

Substance Monism

Materialism

Behaviourism

Zombies

Zombies

Behaviourism asserts that mental states are reducible to patterns of behaviour.

Zombies, in the philosophical sense, are beings whose behaviour is indistiguishable from our own, but who lack any attendant mentality.

Zombies are conceivable. We can imagine beings who act as we act but who do not feel as we feel. As there is no logical contradiction in the idea of a zombie, it does seem that zombies are possible beings.

Behaviourism, however, must say that zombies are impossible beings. Behaviourism holds that the behavioural patterns are the mental states, and so that any being that has one has the other.

The possibility of zombies thus appears to refute behaviourism.

 

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