chapter 7

Question 1

mind-brain problem

Answer 1

issue of how the mind is related to the brain; three main views: dualism, materialism and functionalism

Question 2

mind-brain in functionalism

Answer 2

the mind is indeed realised in a brain, but that it could be copied to any other brain, just like information on a computer can be copied to other machines

Question 3

mind-brain in materialism

Answer 3

the mind is nothing but a by-product of the biological processes taking place in a particular brain

Question 4

mind-brain in dualism

Answer 4

the mind (or the soul) is something independent of the body.

view about the relationship between the mind and brain that considers them as two different realms; in general the mind is seen as immaterial and in control of human behaviour (free will)

Question 5

mind

Answer 5

aggregate of faculties humans (and animals) have to perceive, feel, think, remember and want

Question 6

dualism

Answer 6

The soul is what gives people their purpose and values in life. It usually aims for the good, but can be tempted and seduced by evil forces.

According to Descartes, humans were composed of a divine soul in a sophisticated body (sometimes referred to as ‘the ghost in the machine’).

Just like Plato, Descartes believed that the soul brought divine information to humans and, therefore, that people had innate knowledge, which they could recover through deductive reasoning.

Question 7

ambivalence around dualism

Answer 7

second half of the nineteenth century

emphasis religions placed on the immortality of the soul
the connection of the soul to a divine entity
its independence of the body.

At the same time, they were unwilling to reduce the human mind to nothing but brain tissue

Question 8

consciousness

Answer 8

word referring to the private, first- person experiences an individual lives through; contains all the mental states a person is aware of; part of the mind that can be examined with introspection

Question 9

conditions of free will

Answer 9

1. The agent must have been able to do otherwise. Free will only exists when there is a choice.
2. The act must originate in the agent, not in some external force.
3. The act must be the outcome of rational deliberation (acts that are erratic and unpredictable are not seen as free).

Question 10

the interaction problem

Answer 10

how to explain the mechanisms by which an inde- pendent mind (or soul) can influence the body.

Question 11

monads (meaning)

Answer 11

the universe could be compared it to a living organism.

The building blocks were not material particles, but energy-laden and soul- invested units, called monads

Question 12

monads

Answer 12

1. Simple monads
   formed the bodies of all matter (organic and inorganic). They had some type of unconscious and unorganised perception, and they were motivated by a tendency to keep in line with the existing, pre-established harmony of the universe.
2. Sentient monads
   present in all living organisms, but not in inorganic material. They had capacities for feeling pleasure and pain, and for the voluntary focusing of attention. However, they lacked the ability to reason about their experiences.
3. Rational monads
   the conscious minds of humans. They possessed the capacity of apperception, the faculty not only to perceive but also to reflect upon what is perceived.
4. The supreme monad
   controlled and motivated all other monads. This in Leibniz’s eyes was the omniscient and omnipotent God of Christian religion.

Question 13

animistic substances

Answer 13

Phlogiston:
a substance that was believed to make materials flammable before the chemical processes of combustion were understood

vital force:
animistic substance thought to be present in living matter before the chemical and biological differences between living and non-living matter were understood

Question 14

materialism

Answer 14

view about the relationship between the mind and brain that considers the mind as the brain in operation; predicts that the mind de- pends on the specific brain in which it is realized; denies the existence of free-will

Question 15

folk psychology

Answer 15

unsubstantiated convictions of lay people, similar to ‘folk medicine’ and ‘folk science’, which are also incoherent collections of beliefs and superstitions that are void of empirical verification.

Question 16

the identity problem

Answer 16

the difficulty the materialistic theory of the mind–brain relationship has to explain how two events can be experienced as the same despite the fact that their realisation in the brain differs

Question 17

meme

Answer 17

information unit pro- posed by Dawkins that reproduces itself according to the principles of the evolutionary theory (variation, selection and replication)

The main difference between genes and memes at present is that the former have managed to harness many organisms, so that they can survive the extinction of a species, whereas the latter (still) largely depend on the human race for their growth and dis- tribution.

Such a view would predict that memes will push for the development of forms of information multiplication other than humans (e.g. by means of computers, robots and neural networks).

Question 18

levels of information processing david marr

Answer 18

1. computational level
   researchers postulate ideas about how a system can generate output representations from input representations received.
2. algorithmic level
   they try to specify the algorithms necessary to per- form the processes proposed at the computational level.
3. implementation level
   they aim to make the algorithms work on a specific physical system.

Question 19

symbol grounding problem

Answer 19

the finding that representations (symbols) used in computations require a reference to some external reality in order to get meaning

Question 20

embodied cognition

Answer 20

the conviction that the interactions between the human body and the environment form the grounding of human cognition.

Question 21

access consciousness

Answer 21

access conscious information can be reported by the patient, used for reasoning and acted upon intentionally

Question 22

Qualia

Answer 22

qualities of con- scious thoughts that give the thoughts a rich and vivid meaning, grounded in interactions with the world

Question 23

hard problem

Answer 23

name given by Chalmers to refer to the difficulty of explaining in what respects consciousness is more than accounted for on the basis of materialism and functionalism