Dualism & Physicalism (week 5)

Should we, as human beings, think of ourselves as made out of two different substances, like Descartes argued? Or are you persuaded by the arguments of physicalism that we are purely physical beings?

The idea that we are made of a body and a mind feels like what I've always thought was true, but I don't think it can stand up to scrutiny when I really think about it. I would really like to believe that my mind is independent of my body/brain, it certainly feels like something with its own... identity, I guess? But when I think about all the massive amounts of evidence that brain science can show us - I don't know. The fact that neuroscientists can now see activity in specific parts of our brains when we do certain things, think about certain things, feel certain emotions, etc - and now the new science that can read the brainwaves that happen in our brains when we hear sounds, and actually reproduce a close approximation of the sound we've just heard by playing that brainwave back! - my god, I mean, how long before they can actually read our thoughts?? In a way I would much rather they didn't go much further with this technology... one day they may find a way to decode our brainwaves and read our thoughts without permission! (But I can also see the wonderful potential - people who can't communicate by any normal means suddenly being able to share their thoughts!) Anyway - back to the discussion...

I've read about people who've had brain injuries and woken up with different tastes in food, different senses of humor and so on, and the story of what happened to Phineas Gage is another example.I would like to think that my personality is my own, shaped by my personal history, my upbringing, my genes, and whatever other little spark it took to make me me, and it's in sync with my mind. If an injury in our brain can have that much of an effect on our personality, then where is the mind in all of this? I think of my mind as my thoughts, my awareness, my ideas, my beliefs, my judgments, my tastes... I'm sure I've left a lot out, but you get the idea. If my mind is totally separate from my brain, and is in fact a different substance, then it shouldn't be affected at all by a brain injury - my sense of humor should stay the same, my taste in food, my personality... But since we know these things are affected by brain injuries, I don't think we can deny that our personalities (and for me, that really is almost the same as saying our minds) are too closely linked to the condition of our brains for them to be considered independent. I used to think of my mind as sort of an invisible thing that hovers inside my head, but when I really think about it, I have to admit it's probably more a sort of an elaborate by-product of my brain activity.
And while I'm on here, for the record, I don't see any reason why anyone assumes that dogs, cats, birds, or any other creature with a brain wouldn't have what we would call a mind. If our brains are creating interesting and elaborate by-products in us that we think of as minds, then why wouldn't theirs? Maybe less complex than ours (or maybe not...) but I don't see why they wouldn't have the same physical things happening to them as we have happening to us. Just sayin'.