1. Motivation

Question 1

How did Davidson (“Actions, Reasons and Causes”, 1980 break down reasons/intentions?

Answer 1

Into beliefs and ‘pro-attitudes’ –psychological/affective states, desires, feelings of obligation.

Question 2

What is normativity in philosophy?

Answer 2

The fact of being to do with values, appropriateness, justifiability, etc.

Question 3

What is the difference between implicit and explicit norms?

Answer 3

Implicit –how to behave in a movie theatre, dress for a wedding

Explicit – rules and laws

Question 4

Is having a belief and a pro-attitude sufficient for having a reason? (argues Risjord, 2005)

Answer 4

No. Reasons depend on social context, Risjord argues. E.g., Illongot headhunters – pro-attitude = want wife; belief = need to take head to get wife. However, this would count as a reason only in the social context of that tribe. The individual would not hold that reason as valid, nor would others accept it outside of that context.

Question 5

Erotetic?

Answer 5

Pertaining to questions or questioning.

Question 6

In erotetic theory, what do Why questions ask?

Answer 6

Why P (topic) rather than Q (foil)?

Question 7

In erotetic theory, how is the desired answer to a Why question specified?

Answer 7

With relevance criteria –which identifies the set of possible answers.

Question 8

“Why did the space shuttle Challenger explode?” What is the topic, foil, and ambiguity here, in terms of erotetic theory?

Answer 8

The topic is the explosion of the shuttle.

The foil is the shuttle landing safely.

Ambiguity –the relevance criterion is not specified. Answer could be the efficient cause – e.g., heat melting the airframe
Or it could be a structural condition –e.g., the airframe was no made out of sufficiently robust material

Question 9

Ceteris paribus

Answer 9

All other things being equal.

Question 10

Autopoiesis

Answer 10

The term “autopoiesis” (from Greek αὐτo- (auto-), meaning “self”, and ποίησις (poiesis), meaning “creation, production”) refers to a system capable of reproducing and maintaining itself.

Question 11

Two criticisms of drive theory made by cognitivists, following Robert White’s 1959 paper ‘Motivation Reconsidered’?

Answer 11

• Experimental evidence that organisms appear to still engage in activity even when a drive is satisfied.
• Drive theory excludes the role of cognition in behaviour.

Question 12

A fortiori

Answer 12

Argumentum a fortiori (Latin: “from a/the stronger [thing]”) is a form of argumentation which draws upon existing confidence in a proposition to argue in favour of a second proposition that is held to be implicit in the first.

Question 13

In what way does the cognitive theory commit the error of dualism?

Answer 13

It assumes that minds freely choose goals, and then tells the body to pursue these goals. Thus creating a dualism between the free mental and the determined physical. The basic problem is: there must be something driving the choosing.

Question 14

According to Maze, consciousness is…

Answer 14

Consciousness is “a relationship in which one awareness is the object of another within the same mental life” (Maze 1983, p. 91).

Question 15

According to Maze, an unconscious mental act is…

Answer 15

An unconscious mental act is one which the cognising subject has not come to know via a subsequent mental act.

Question 16

Maze’s theory of consciousness correctly identifies unconscious mentality as both logically and temporally ________, relative to conscious mentality.

Answer 16

Maze’s theory of consciousness correctly identifies unconscious mentality as both logically and temporally primary, relative to conscious mentality.

Question 17

What is Freud’s pleasure principle?

Answer 17

The pleasure principle is the driving force of the id that seeks immediate gratification of all needs, wants, and urges. In other words, the pleasure principle strives to fulfill our most basic and primitive urges, including hunger, thirst, anger, and sex. When these needs are not met, the result is a state of anxiety or tension.

Question 18

What is Freud’s reality principle?

Answer 18

The reality principle compels people to defer gratification when necessary due to the obstacles of reality. The reality principle is governed by the ego, which controls the instant-gratification mentality of the id.

Question 19

How has the relationship between the pleasure principle and the reality principle been misunderstood?

Answer 19

The reality principle does not replace or oppose the pleasure principle; it works in the service of the pleasure principle. That is to say, the organism is motivated to know the truth about the environment because such knowledge can maximise its pleasure.

Question 20

Everything that is involved in the operation of the ______ principle (reason, cognition, perception of reality, exploration of the world, etc.) represents the adjustment to the environment of an organism that is always driven by the ______ principle.

Answer 20

Everything that is involved in the operation of the reality principle (reason, cognition, perception of reality, exploration of the world, etc.) represents the adjustment to the environment of an organism that is always driven by the pleasure principle.

Question 21

What is the problem of seeking stimulation– e.g., sky-diving – for a drive theory?

Answer 21

Orthodox drive theory claims that behaviour is directed towards drive satisfaction, whereas stimulating activities do they opposite –they appear to ramp up the drives.

Question 22

Why is the problem of locating the somatic source of the primary drives ‘insurmountable’? (Newbery)

Answer 22

1. First you’d need a scanner that can monitor all biochemical processes and correlate them with behaviour.
2. Hard to distinguish between a drive that is satiated and a drive that is inoperative. (Don’t buy this whole argument).
3. If a biochemical change regularly brings about two behaviours –e.g., eating and sex –how would you know which behaviour was basic to the drive?

Question 23

What’s the difference between a need and a drive?

Answer 23

Drives are engines of behaviour involving motor outputs. Needs are requirements for survival –what a drive might GET. “Drives are the motivational structures which have evolved, via connection with the organism’s perceptual and cognitive apparatus, to allow the organism to satisfy its basic needs (i.e., to procure supplies needed for life).”

Question 24

Akrasia?

Answer 24

The state of mind in which someone acts against their better judgement.

Question 25

What is the function of behaviour in Hull’s drive theory?

Answer 25

Behaviour occurs to reduce biological need, thereby optimising the organism’s potential for survival.

Question 26

Motivation was conceptualized to consist of both a ____-______, directional component and an _____, ______ component (Duffy 1957; Hebb 1955).

Answer 26

Motivation was conceptualized to consist of both a goal-directed, directional component and an arousal, activational component (Duffy 1957; Hebb 1955).

Question 27

What is a vector?

Answer 27

A vector is an object that has both a magnitude and a direction. Geometrically, we can picture a vector as a directed line segment, whose length is the magnitude of the vector and with an arrow indicating the direction. The direction of the vector is from its tail to its head.

Question 28

What is a transitive relation?

Answer 28

A relation is transitive whenever an element A is related to an element B, and B is in turn related to an element C, then A is also related to C.

Question 29

Is the relation ‘has the same name as’ transitive?

Answer 29

Yes, because of Bob1 has the same name as Bob2, Bob 1 will also have the same name as Bob3.

Question 30

Is the relation ‘is the mother of’ transitive?

Answer 30

No, because if Clare is the mother of June, and June is the mother of Sally, Clare is not the mother of Sally.

Question 31

Parameter?

Answer 31

Is any characteristic that can help in defining or classifying a particular system. A parameter is an element of a system that is useful, or critical, when identifying the system, or when evaluating its performance, status, condition, etc.

Question 32

Parametrization?

Answer 32

Parametrization is the process of deciding and defining the parameters necessary for a complete or relevant specification of a model or geometric object. E.g., if the model is of a wind turbine, then the parameters of interest will probably include the number, length and pitch of the blades.

Question 33

What is a voxel?

Answer 33

A single cube in a 3-D grid, on the analogy of pixel, a single square in a 2-D grid. Used in MRI to denote a cube of brain, usually a million or so brain cells.

Question 34

What changes does an FMRI track?

Answer 34

Changes in blood oxygen levels.

Question 35

Height of Everest?

Answer 35

8850m above sea level.

Question 36

In neuroscience, what’s the difference between tonic and phasic?

Answer 36

Tonic firing typically occurs without presynaptic input and can be viewed at as background activity. Tonic activity is often characterized by a steady action potential firing at a constant frequency. Note that not all neurons may have tonic activity at rest.

Phasic firing occurs after a neuron is activated due to presynaptic activity and it incurs activity on top of any background activity a neuron may have. It is typically restricted to one, a few, or a short burst of action potentials, whereafter the activity quickly returns to the resting state.

Phasic and tonic receptors are two types of endings of sensory nerve cells. Phasic receptors respond quickly to stimuli, while tonic receptors adapt more slowly and over a more sustained period of time.

Question 37

What is cybernetics?

Answer 37

Cybernetics is formally defined as:

“The science of control and communication in animals, men and machines.”

As it is applied to complex systems, cybernetics is associated with models in which a monitor compares what is happening to a system at various sampling times with some standard of what should be happening, and a controller adjusts the system’s behaviour accordingly.

Cybernetic models are usually distinguished by being hierarchical, adaptive and making permanent use of feedback loops.

Question 38

What’s the difference between homeostasis and allostasis?

Answer 38

Homeostasis is the principle of internal regulation around a setpoint;

Allostasis is the principle of responding to physiological changes in a way that maximises efficiency; e.g., a neuroendocrine response to stress

Question 39

What’s the difference between positive and negative feedback?

Answer 39

Positive feedback happens when initial responses to a change trigger more of that change, creating yet more of the response. E.g., physiological reactions to prolonged stress, when the hypothalamic-pituitary axis responds stronger and stronger to a series of repeated stressors. Or an amplified microphone.

This is opposite to the negative feedback of homeostasis, where a response opposes an original change and restores the original balance.

Question 40

What is neuroscience reductionism?

Answer 40

The basically logical positivist or extreme materialist conviction that all behaviour must be explained without recourse to psychological levels of concepts and, instead, solely in terms of directly observed physical events: neurons, neurotransmitters, etc.