Philosophical zombies and mutants: thought experiment

Zombies in philosophy exist for quite a long time; you can find zombies in numerous thought experiments which are designed to prove physicalism  and similar theories, such as epiphenomenalism, wrong (perhaps one of the most famous developments of this argument is the one of David Chalmers [born 1966], an Australian philosopher). What is actually a philosophical zombie? There are a few types of philosophical zombies but all of them have something in common – you cannot distinguish between zombies and human beings because they behave in the same way as normal people and look the same too (do not confuse philosophical zombies with people living despite the decomposition – I’ve never liked that ridiculous idea at all). You’re probably wondering what actually makes people different from philosophical zombies.

Epiphenomenalism

Ivan Pavlov
(1849-1936)

While many philosophers regard human being as a complex creature with an unexplored mental inside, others believe, however, that all your mental states are merely physical processes which take place inside your brain. This theory is known as epiphenomenalism. According to the epiphenomenalism definition these are not your thoughts which make you feel angry and turn red. These are only symptoms of the same external situation. Therefore thoughts are no more than a simple illusion caused by external conditions. Also there is no such thing as free will.

You’ve probably heard many times of Ivan Pavlov, Russian physiologist. He’s famous for his research on conditioning and reflex actions. He proved that animal’s behaviour may be altered by rewarding an animal for “good” actions and punishing for those which are considered to be “wrong”. Imagine that you’ve got a dog and you punish it for biting furniture and reward for obeying you; soon he will obey you even if there is no reward afterwards. This shows how much the behaviour has to do with upbringing. In philosophy of psychology there’s even a theory called behaviourism (which shares many similarities with epiphenomenalism) that all what people (and animals) do are in fact behaviours (including thoughts). What are the arguments for epiphenomenalism?