Are thoughts just neurons? Mind→Brain Reduction

Assume the mind exists: is it anything more than the brain? The brain is responsible for so much in the mind, it’s hard to see how the two are separable. But then again, the brain is a material object—can the mind be material?

• Mind→brain reduction
  • 1. The mind exists
  • 2. But it is nothing more than the brain
• A1: the brain affects the mind
  • S1: (Phineas Gage) brain affects personality
    • O1: psychological explanations
  • S2: brain affects abilities like language-use
    • O1: affects the mind’s ability to use the brain, not the mind
  • S3: (alcohol) brain induces emotions and experiences
• O1: your brain doesn’t turn into the thing in your mind
  • 1. assume: The mind is nothing but the brain
  • 2. The brain is material
  • 3. So, the mind is material
  • 4. But, the mind is not material
    • S1: qualities in the mind don’t exist materially
      • E.g., you can see neon purple, but there is nowhere in your brain that is physically neon purple
    • S2: objects in the mind don’t exist materially
      • E.g., you can perceive a truck in your mind, but it doesn’t exist in your brain materially
    • S3: we can think about things that aren’t physically present
    • S4: we can think about things that don’t physically exist
  • A possible response to this objection is to adopt property dualism, which we will look at soon