 Definition: The theory that mental states are really physical brain
states
 It is a contemporary materialist view
 Materialists believe that reality is ultimately composed of matter
 The main idea behind the theory is that feelings, desires, thoughts
etc. are not intangible but they are physical manifestations of the
brain
 Materialists believe that science will soon discover that mental
states and brain states are the same thing like water and H2O
 It is said that trying to identify conscious experiences with brain
states will lead to problems
 Brain states are publicly observable but conscious experiences are
not
 A brain surgeon can see different brain states but nobody can
literally see a conscious experience
 Thinking has no colour, location or shape
 This could lead one to believe that brain states and a mental
state/consciousness are different things with different qualities
 Isn’t the essence of consciousness immaterial?
 J.J.C. Smart supports the mind/brain identity theory
 He supports the idea of animal evolution and says that a nonphysical
property could not just come from a chemical process (evolution)
 He believes that science will discover that brain and mental states are
identical
 He also says that the relation between brain and mental states are
contingent not necessary otherwise it would take the reduce the
meaning of the words.
 Norman Malcolm is against the theory
 He believes that if mental and brain states are the same then they
would have all of the same properties and this is not the case
 It is not necessary to assign spatial locations to mental states like
thinking but brain states have a location
 Thoughts require background circumstances like practice, habits,
assumptions etc. but brain states do not
 Also, there is no law of physics necessary or applicable for a thought
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