Philosophy

The metaphysics of mind is a huge topic! Can you be any more specific about what you need help with?

If you're looking for an outline - this topic is about whether the mind is a non-physical thing (dualism) or whether it is just a physical thing (physicalism). You have to study various dualist and physicalist theories. For example:

Substance dualism - Descartes' view that mental substance is separate from physical substance
Property dualism - The view that while there is only one physical substance, it can have mental properties which are not reducible to physical properties.
Behaviourism (physicalist) - The view that we cannot know about the true metaphysical nature of the mind and should therefore focus on the meaning of our mental concepts, which reduce or can be explained in terms of behavioural concepts.

Thank you for that explanation. I guess I just needed someone to word it better. We started on this topic when I started year 12 a few months ago so it was a lil confusing. Do you recommend any textbooks that I should read to understand it better apart from the hodders education one?

guys quick question,do you need to remember set texts at all, like is it just enough to read them and their interpretations in the Hodder Education Book/Lacewing Book? I write this since the subject content in the AQA spec just states the theories to learn. I'm a private candidate so I'm unaware of how schools go about planning for exams in AQA Philosophy. Since there are so many set texts I wonder which are most relevant. Secondly, if you had to revise in a short time what would be the required bare essentials to cover.

The AQA spec is clear that the texts mentioned in the syllabus are just suggested reading. Questions in the final exam will not require any knowledge from those set texts to answer, though such knowledge may be helpful. You can get 100% of the marks just sticking with the lacewing or Hodder education books.

Thank you!
I just read from the AQA 7172 Syllabus:

'At the end of each topic is a list of texts related to that topic. Students must demonstrate an
understanding of, and the ability to make a reasoned evaluation of, the arguments set out in those
texts. Where a particular section of text is specified, students are not expected to be familiar with
arguments beyond that section. Credit is available, where appropriate, for students whose
responses demonstrate wider reading and understanding, but full credit is available for students
who don’t go beyond the specified section(s).'

So, regarding this information how would you interpret this?