Is Mind Distinct from Body?: Hobbesian Materialism and the Mind
Seventeenth century materialists, led by British philosopher Thomas Hobbes, object to the idea of mind as a non-physical substance. For Hobbes the universe consists of "matter in motion," nothing else. If dualism struggles to account for how body an...
What is Real?: Materialist's View of Reality, The
Materialists maintain that only the physical world is real. This idea which dates back to Democritus, a Greek philosopher who lived in the 5th century B.C, rose to prominence during the Scientific Revolution. Seventeenth century philosopher Thomas H...
Behaviorism, Identity Theory and Functionalism
Philosopher John Searle explores various perspectives on the mind which he believes are all flawed, including behaviorism and identity theory, then discusses functionalism, which he says is essentially a combination of the other two. According to fu...
The Rediscovery of the Mind
Philosopher John Searle says that many philosophers are mistaken in the way they view the mind and the body, noting that they rely on old vocabulary and fail to consider how the mind actually works in real life.
Encountering External Reality
Philosopher Ian Hacking calls himself a materialist, explaining that we learn partly through "a lot of innate equipment...but certainly from earliest experience how to adapt ourselves to the material environment in which we find ourselves."