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Zombie Argument

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Zombie Argument
Charmain Rantsieng
Philosophy Essay (20 March 2013)
RNTREF002
Essay topic three

The important problems of the mind module are: how do we understand the nature of mental events, their relation to the physical world and physical events and fundamentally the problems with other minds. This essay essentially serves to evaluate whether the Zombie argument against Cartesian Dualism is sound by: criticising the Zombie argument through analysing the validity of each premise of the Zombie argument, defending the Zombie argument against one of its objections and responses from the Cartesian Argument by analogy. This essay will offer reasons to believe the Zombie argument by contrasting it with the strengths and weaknesses of the Cartesian Dualist main argument and the Cartesian Dualist Argument by Analogy and then draw a conclusion as to whether the Zombie objection to Cartesian Dualism is sound and strong. But, first this essay will present what Cartesian Dualism says in order for us to understand its objection (the Zombie argument). Secondly this essay will evaluate the Zombie arguments’ soundness and strength by investigating the validity of each premise, and the objection presented to the Zombie argument by Cartesian Dualist from the Argument by Analogy. Further, this essay will provide reasons to believe the Zombie argument by contrasting it with Cartesian Dualism and finally this essay will draw a conclusion that will state whether the Zombie Argument succeeds in falsifying Cartesian Dualism.
Cartesian Dualism is Descartes’ concept of dualism which states that physical and mental events belong to two different substance; the mind is immaterial and the body is material and all people possess this dual nature “I thought of the Queen and I saluted” there is the mental I and the physical I who does the act of saluting (Blackburn, 1999: 51). Cartesian Dualism states that minds are not in space, they are not subject to the laws of physics and most importantly minds
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