Types of Mental Qualities and Physical-Mental Distinction

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Abstract

Mental qualities are of various kinds and the question is whether there can be any common features among them. The first section of the present article is to examine some classifications of mental qualities and thus distinguish their distinctive characteristics like consciousness, mental quality and intentionality. In the second part of the article each of these characteristics as well as the cognitive feature of access for the first person and their relations are briefly discussed. Drawing on  these characteristics and considering two accounts of the physical, one being based on theory and the other on the basis of thing, I formulate mental-physical contrast at the end of second part. The question whether or not “mental’’ is an individual ontological feature, rather a natural kind is touched on in the concluding part of the present article.

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References

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online edition: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/consciousness-intentionality/.

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online edition: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/consciousness/

 

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