Chapter 7: Mind-brain problem, free will and consciousness

Question 1

Define self

Answer 1

The feeling of being an individual with private experiences, feelings and beliefs

Question 2

Define dualism

Answer 2

View in which the mind is immaterial and independent of the material body

Question 3

People associated with dualism

Answer 3

Plato - the soul exists before lives past the body
Descartes - first to address and defend dualism

Question 4

Positives of dualism

Answer 4

• consciousness is the focus of human functioning
• free will

Question 5

Define free will and its conditions

Answer 5

The individual can choose their actions deliberately. Three conditions must be met:
- there must be alternatives
- the individual must originate the action
- rational deliberation

Question 6

Problems with dualism

Answer 6

• interaction problem
• unconscious control processes - where does the mind go?
• unscientific and mystery substances
• causal closure problem
• brain damage problem

Question 7

Define materialism

Answer 7

The mind is physical and not independent of the body, it is a biological byproduct of the brain

Question 8

Consequences of materialism

Answer 8

• consciousness as a folk psychology: people had a misunderstanding
• Dawkins: humans are a means for genes to survive

Question 9

Problems with materialism

Answer 9

• identity problem
• how does the mind come from biological processes in the brain?

Question 10

Functionalism

Answer 10

The function of a mental state is important instead of the mechanisms and physical states it is made up of, this helped solve the identity problem and leads from multiple realisability - can machines have consciousness?

Question 11

Teleportation

Answer 11

Teleportation would move the atoms of the body and reinstate them in a different location.

Dualism: the body would be reinstated without the mind as they are separate and therefore would not be teleported along
Materialism: the mind would also be teleported along as it is made up of the brain functions
Functionalism: the mind would also be teleported along as it is made up of the information and network

Question 12

Define meme

Answer 12

Information and knowledge which is replicated in a similar way to genes, natural selection also applies, as coined by Dawkins

Question 13

Problems with functionalism

Answer 13

Cognitive neuroscience argued human processing can be understood with physical brain parts

Symbol grounding - symbols need external references to get meaning in the changing environment

Question 14

Define embodied cognition

Answer 14

Interactions between human body and environment form meaning of human cognition

Question 15

Access consciousness

Answer 15

Information can be reported

Question 16

Phenomenological consciousness

Answer 16

Human experiences have subjective qualities beyond descriptions

Question 17

Unconscious processing

Answer 17

• semantic priming
• masked priming
• implicit memory
• initiation of Movement (Libet)

So far, no effect has been found that hasn’t also been found during conscious processing.

Question 18

Wegner’s illusion of free will

Answer 18

Human mind attributes action to free will when:
- thought appears in consciousness before an action
- thought is consistent with the action
- no alternative cause

Question 19

Global workspace model

Answer 19

Consciousness spreads information throughout the brain so that it can decide which actions to take.
(compared to a theatre, different teams need to know what is happening to know what to do, even independently)

Question 20

Chinese room thought experiment

Answer 20

A non-Chinese speaker can be taught to provide the correct answer to a stimulus, but do they know Chinese and can they pass a Turing test?

Question 21

Qualia

Answer 21

Experiential properties of thoughts and mental states that give thoughts meaning in the outside world

Question 22

Zombie thought experiment

Answer 22

If you created a clone, it would have the exact same body but would not have the same consciousness, it would not feel emotions or pain, although it could portray them as learned responses, it would be a zombie

Question 23

Eliminative materialism

Answer 23

Mental states are not real at all, they are just folk psychology

Question 24

Reductive materialism

Answer 24

Consciousness and mental states do exist but are reducible to physical brain states, explained by identity theory

Question 25

Type-type identity theory
Why is it criticised?

Answer 25

Mental states are identical to brain states across individuals and time, allowing a full reduction of psychology. However, it is criticised due to:
- neuroplasticity
- individual differences
- content of mental states

Question 26

Non-reductive materialism

Answer 26

Mental states are not reducible to brain states, links to functionalism and implies multiple realisability

Question 27

Token-token identity theory

Answer 27

Mental states can be different brain states in different people, rejecting type-type identity theory and full reductionismT

Question 28

Turing test

Answer 28

Can you distinguish between a computer-generated answer and a human-generated one?

Question 29

Chalmers’ easy and hard problems of consciousness

Answer 29

Easy problem: understanding which brain processes are related to conscious experiences

Hard problem: understanding why we have conscious and subjective experiences

Question 30

Cognitive closure hypothesis

Answer 30

We will never be able to understand the hard problem of consciousness