Physicalism

Question 1

Physicalism is the view that..

Answer 1

Everything that exists - including the mind and mental states - is either a physical thing or supervenes on physical things; two physically identical things must be mentally identical.

Physicalism opposes dualism

Question 2

What is behaviourism?

Answer 2

Behaviourism argues that the meaning of words used to describe mental states (e.g, happy, pain) is all about what is externally observable, e.g, behaviour and behavioural dispositions.

Question 3

What is hard behaviourism?

Answer 3

All propositions about mental states can be reduced without loss of meaning to propositions about behaviours and bodily states using the language of physics.

You can give a complete account of the mind purely in terms of actual behaviours and bodily states.