Intentionality And Consciousness And The Characteristics...

Catherine Andes Philosophy 290 Dr. Dwyer April 15, 2015 I. Intentionality and Consciousness and the Characteristics of â€Å"The Mental† All of us try and explain the great mystery that has pondered ancient and modern philosophers. What constitutes our mental thoughts? Putting characteristics together to describe â€Å"The Mental† is something that Graham has done in order to try and explain the ongoing phenomenon of the Mind-Body problem. Philosophers and writers, including Graham, have developed, and held onto the ideas that Intentionality and Consciousness are directly related to the Mind-Body problem. They use these two factors to come up with true reasoning as to why we think and react the way that we do and what†¦show more content†¦Intentionality plays an important role in bringing about changes in a persons activity and mind actions. Consciousness gives us no answer as to why brain states give rise to mental states. Consciousness is a certain feature shared by sense-experience and imagery, perhaps belonging also to a broad range of other mental phenomena. According to Graham, â€Å"Consciousne ss is the most vivid or explicit feature of our mental lives- for our being minded or possessing a perspective.† It is interesting because Consciousness has us ask ourselves what it seems to be. How is feels to be in pain, anger, shame or happiness. Consciousness is in a sense, the feeling we get when we think through a math problem or remember where we parked our car. However, at the heart of the debate over the nature of human beings, the existence of free will, and the validity of science there are two opposing viewpoints: dualism and physicalism. II. Dualism Dualism is the attempt to solve the mind-body problem that has been stumping philosophers for years. Coming to an explanation requires two types of dualism that include: substance dualism and property dualism. Philosophers who argue and agree with substance dualism, is the idea that the mind and the body are composed of different substances that can be separated and broken down into smaller pieces.