You are to write a paper of approximately 1400 words on the topic below. It should be double-spaced in a standard 12-point font with standard margins. It should have a descriptive title (not ??Paper #1) and an abstract. Please do not have a dedicated title or abstract page, and duplex (both sides of the page) printing is fine.
An abstract is a short (usually less than 50 word) summary that states your thesis and the rough structure of your paper. You should assume that your reader has not read your abstract when s/he reads the body of your essay. You may use lines directly from your abstract in your introduction or elsewhere. Be sure your reader can distinguish abstract from body. One convention is to put the abstract in italics, single-spaced, with justified wide margins. Another way is to state ??Abstract?? above the abstract, and ??Body?? above the body.
Topic Preamble:
Imagine that your best friend was in a car accident. She was briefly unconscious and woke up in the hospital, where she still is. She??s told you that she has been feeling fine for the last couple of days, but they have kept her in for tests. While in the hospital visiting her, you have heard rumours of a patient who has no organic brain, but otherwise seems to be completely normal. Then you overhear the following conversation.
Doctor #1: ??I??ve thought about this a lot. I believe the patient does not have mental states, since I believe she does not have an immaterial soul. Only creatures with souls are creatures with mental states.??
Doctor #2: ??I don??t think that an immaterial soul, whatever exactly that is, is required for mental states, plus I don??t see how you could tell whether the patient has such a soul or not. What is relevant is that she behaved normally prior to the accident and is behaving normally now. What??s inside the patient??s skull apparently has the same causal capacities as a normal human brain. So, clearly, the patient has mental states.??
Doctor #3: ??Well, I agree with your conclusion, Dr #1, but not with your reasoning. While it is interesting that the patient had attracted so little attention prior to the accident, what is relevant is that we [the doctors involved in this case] know more than people who did not look inside her skull. Since the patient does not have a normal organic brain, but instead has a non-organic digital computer playing that role, the patient does not have mental states.??
Doctor #4: ??I agree with Dr #2 that the patient has mental states, but what??s in her skull is irrelevant. She behaves and has the disposition to behave in ways that constitute having mentality. I don??t care what??s inside her skull.??
Just then, the doctors notice that you are listening; they stop talking.
Actual Topic:
Is it more reasonable to think that the patient has mental states or that the patient does not have mental states?
Your main task is to answer this question and to present an argument that supports your answer. Think of that as your first task (though it needn??t appear first in your paper). But you must also consider the positions/arguments of the doctors and address at least three of them. Which three is up to you (and you can look at all four, but keep in mind that this is a short paper and it would probably be wiser to spend your words otherwise.) This means that you will, in effect, be addressing an objection to your view, since the doctors do not all agree. Which of their positions you spend the most time on will depend on what you think. Also, you may flesh out what you take to be their positions, provided your expanded version is consistent with that they??ve said above.
Also, you do not need to agree with any of the doctors?? arguments, though you must, of course, think that the conclusion of two of them is more reasonable than the conclusion of the other two. (Two doctors think P and two think ~P.)
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