Category: philosophical counseling
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The emotions accompanying our mental activities
It is time to put to rest the Platonic assumption that emotions are one kind of activity (or faculty) and reasoning another kind of activity (or faculty). They are not two forces vying against each other, and it is not that one is the ‘slave’ or the ‘master’ of the other: Hume holding that reason…
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Healing the sickly vs. trying to understand another’s character
Recall that this is the invalid and deleterious argument that I have sought to examine: 5.) Because the human mind, like the human body, tends to be sickly and ill, it seeks healing or cures. In the past couple of posts, I have been trying to say some things that I believe to be accurate…
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Trying to understand mental activities
Last time, I wrote about the common category mistakes we make. We are in error when we think of minding as it if were like the body or some bodily organ. It is not. Since minding is not only not the body but also not like the body, it follows that minding cannot be healthy or…
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3 poor questions to ask about ‘the’ mind
A Joke Father: Point to where my left foot is. Son [points down and to the left]: There! Father: That’s right. Now point to where my right hand is. Son [points upward and to the right]: There! Father: That’s right. Now point to where my heart is. Son [points to chest]: In there! Father: That’s right. Now…
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Category mistake: Mental illness
Today, I begin to inquire into this strange, fascinating, and mistaken argument: 5.) Because the human mind, like the human body, tends to be sickly and ill, it seeks healing or cures. Here, we have a classic example of what the late philosopher Gilbert Ryle called a ‘category mistake’: the misattribution of the properties that…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 