Tuesday, March 20, 2012

[PHI 1000] The Day I Died

Here's an argument for the claim that the mind is not just the brain from reports about Near-Death Experiences (NDE):
  1. When a person is brain dead, s/he cannot have conscious experiences and form memories.
  2. People who have NDEs are brain-dead and yet they recall having conscious experiences.
  3. Hence, the mind "works" when the brain does not function.
  4. Therefore, the mind is not merely the brain.


Is this argument valid? Is it sound?

2 comments:

  1. This argument is valid because if the premise, " Hence, the mind "works" when the brain does not function" is true, then it proves that "Therefore, the mind is not merely the brain" is true as well. This argument is not sound because it is very difficult to say exactly when NDE's occurs and if the patient is clinically dead or brain dead. It would be impossible to know if it is actually the mind in function.

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  2. This argument is invalid and not sound. It’s not valid and sound because the premises are contradictory with each other. P1 says that “When a person is brain dead, s/he cannot have conscious experiences and form memories”, but P2 says “People who have NDEs are brain-dead and yet they recall having conscious experiences.” P1 states people cannot have conscious experiences when brain is dead, then how come people who have NDE can have conscious experiences? So I think P1 and P2 are contradictory with each other. Therefore, this argument should be revised, and included these parts to make it sound: (P1) If the mind is just the brain, then people who are brain-dead cannot have conscious experiences. (P2) People who have NDEs are supposed to be brain-dead but they have conscious experiences. (C) Therefore, it is not the case that the mind is just the brain. Now, the premises are logical, and the conclusion does follow the premises.

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