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Substance dualism

Abstract:
Events are the instantiations of properties in substances at times. A full history of the world must include, as well as physical events, mental events (ones to which the substance involved has privileged access) and mental substances (ones to the existence of which the substance has privileged access), and, among the latter, pure mental substances (ones which do not include a physical substance as an essential part). Humans are pure mental substances. An argument for this is that it seems conceivable that I could exist without my body. An objection to this argument is that ‘I’ refers to my body, and so what seems conceivable is not metaphysically possible. My response to this objection is that ‘I’ is an informative designator and so necessarily we know to what it refers, and it does not refer to my body.
Publication status:
Published
Peer review status:
Peer reviewed

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Publisher copy:
10.5840/faithphil200926551

Authors


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Institution:
University of Oxford
Department:
Oxford
Role:
Author


Publisher:
Philosophy Documentation Center
Journal:
Faith and Philosophy More from this journal
Volume:
26
Issue:
5
Pages:
501-513
Publication date:
2009-01-12
DOI:
EISSN:
2153-3393
ISSN:
0739-7046


Language:
English
Keywords:
Pubs id:
pubs:220819
UUID:
uuid:1e3df12d-d503-4a95-9549-de4c0a83e1eb
Local pid:
pubs:220819
Source identifiers:
220819
Deposit date:
2016-04-25

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