Chapter 7 - Problem of the mind-brain

Question 1

What does the book constitute as the sense of “self”?

Answer 1

The feeling of being an individual with private experiences, feelings and beliefs, who interacts in a coherent and purposeful way with the environment

Question 2

What is the mind-brain (body) problem?

Answer 2

The issue of how the mind is related to the brain; in other words, is the mind just a subset of physical phenomena or not?

Question 3

What are, simply, the three main views on the mind-brain problem?

Answer 3

1. Dualism: mind (soul) is separate from the body
2. Materialism: mind is a by-product of the biological processes in a brain
3. Functionalism: mind is realised in the brain, but it can be copied to another brain (like information on a computer that can be copied to another machine)

Question 4

How does the book define the “mind”?

Answer 4

The faculties that beings posess to perceive, feel, think, remember and want

Note: this is not that important of a def.

Question 5

In which three instances does dualism take centre stage?

Hint: two important figures, and a widespread phenomena

Answer 5

Religion, Descartes and Plato

Question 5

Which term is used by modern-day philosophers to refer to theories where the mind is seen as radically different from the body (i.e., is independent of biological processes in the brain)?

Answer 5

Cartesian dualism

Question 6

What did dualism look like in early psychology (1850s)?

Answer 6

Dualism began to be questioned, moreso the religous emphasis on the immortality of the soul, its connection to a divine entity and its independence of the body. However, they did not reduce it to “mere” brain tissue, which was likely also attractive because it provided psychologists with a wholly separate field of the mind.

Conclusion: Early psychologists seemed to advocate for some kind of “implicit dualism”

Question 7

What does Chalmers argue about modern “layman’s thinking” in terms of the mind-brain problem?

Answer 7

That the general population still holds on to a type of dualism. Even if it is generally accepted that biological brain processes are the basis of mental operations, statements like “the mind arises from the brain”, in Chalmers view, mean that the mind is still viewed as a different entity in comparison to the brain

Question 8

Why is dualism an attractive view?

Answer 8

It puts consciousness as the centre of human functioning and fits with the motion of free will

Question 9

How does the book define consciousness (irrelevant of a theory)?

Answer 9

The private, first-person experiences an individual lives through; aka all mental states a person is aware of; can be examined with introspection

Question 10

How does the book define free will?

Answer 10

Situation in which an individual can choose their course of action, which is the outcome of an informed deliberation

Question 11

Which three conditions, according to Walter, must be met to be able an action to free will?

Answer 11

1. Must have been able to otherwise
2. The act must originate within, not externally
3. The act must be an outcome of rational deliberation

Question 12

What are the three main reasons for the “downfall of dualism”?

do not explain them

Answer 12

1. The interaction problem
2. Unconsciouss control processes
3. It does not agree with a scientific world view

Question 13

What is the interaction problem?

Answer 13

How can the independent, immaterial affect the material? Aka how does the mind affect the body within a dualistic view?

Question 14

How did Locke doubt Descartes’ claim of consciousness being the defining feature of human existence?

Answer 14

The matter of what happens to humans when they sleep; human existence would be interrupted during sleep if going off of Descartes’ statement.

In other words, Locke raised an early point of unconsciousness being problematic for a dualistic view

Question 15

How did Leibniz disagree with Descartes?

Answer 15

1. The human mind cannot be limited to consciousness (there are too many perceptions, with too little variation between them)
2. The universe cannot be thought of as a machine

Question 16

What do Leibniz’s “monads” mean and which four types were there?

Answer 16

monads = The building blocks of the universe, which were energy-laden and soul invested units (idk man)
1. Simple monads = the body of all matter. Had unconsciouss and unorganized perception and were motivated to keep in line with the existing pre-established harmony of the universe (passive)
2. Sentient monads = present in all organisms, but not inorganic material. Capacity for feeling pleasure and pain and attention focusing. Lacked the ability to reason about experiences
3. Rational monads = conscious minds of humans. Perceive and reflect upon perceival (apperception, which is partly innate) - humans are an example of this type of monad
4. Supreme monad = control and motivation of all other monads (aka God)

Question 17

Who said the following

“There is in us an infinity of perceptions… of which we are unaware because the impressions are either too minute and too numerous, or else too unvarying, so that they are not sufficiently distinctive on their own”

Answer 17

Leibniz

Question 18

What was the point of simple and sentient monads? How do humans experience these?

Answer 18

These monads are not consciously processes, rather, unconsciously they guide and motivate behaviour/thought/etc.

Question 19

What are “phlogiston” and “vital force” and how did discoveries against these two concepts pose an argument against dualism?

Answer 19

• Phlogiston = a substance that was believed to make materials flammable before the process of combustion was understood
• Vital force = animistic substance thought present in living organisms before the chemical/biological differences between living and non-living organisms were understood

Dualism needs the existence of a “mystery substance” which, as seen above, scientists did not have a great experience with in the past. As such, there was (is?) a belief that the mind is also a by-product of biological processes in the brain

Question 20

When did materialism, in context of the mind-brain, take off?

Answer 20

Towards the end of the nineteenth century

Question 21

The definition the book uses of materialsm is a harsh one, which two other terms are also used for the following description;

“The specific cells of the brain and their connections, constitute a person’s mind”

Answer 21

elimitative materialism or complete reductionism

Question 22

What were the two main consequences of materialism > dualism (broadly)?

Answer 22

1. Consciousness was no longer the centre of human functioning (nor was it technically necessary)
2. Free will need not exist

Skinner’s takes?

Question 23

Both Milgram’s (administering of shocks) and Olsen’s (picking a magician’s card) experiements highlight/support which notion?

Answer 23

That conciousness is not the controller of human behaviour

Question 23

What was Churchland’s view on the belief/study of consciousness?

Answer 23

That is equated to “folk psychology”, or a simple collection of beliefs without empirical verification or internal coherence

Question 24

Dawkin’s notions, particularly on that of the understanding of the evolutionary theory, pose against the existence of free will how?

Answer 24

That is to the extend that natural selection is not the common belief about the survival of individuals in their offspring (as this dilutes after only a couple of generations), but that of the survival of DNA modules (genes).
Genes across species and time have stayed rather similar, as such, Dawkin supports the belief of humans (and others) being “survival machines” of the genes (i.e., humans as “slaves” of natures, and such a denounce of free will)

Question 25

What are two main issues with materialism, simply?

Answer 25

1. Identity problem
2. The human mind as a by-product seems unable to be simulated

Question 26

What is the identity problem?

Answer 26

The difficulty in explaining how two events can be experienced as equal, when they are encoded differently

Question 27

What was an invention (?) that directly opposed the materialistic notion of the human mind as a by-product and that information linked to the machine upon which it is realized

Answer 27

The whole Turing machine/boolean code stuff > aka information was in fact not limited to the machine it was realized upon and functional organization is what gives rise to information (functionalism)

Question 28

As the discovery that information (in computers) was independent of device, as long as it retained the binary symbols and Boolean transformations, what did this pose a solution to?

Answer 28

The identity problem; minute physiological changes that accompany a particular experience may not be important as long as they preserve the information code

Question 29

What does (machine) functionalism assume a mental state depends on, opposed to materialism?

Answer 29

Materialism assumes dependency on internal constitution, functionalism opposes this as it assumes dependency on the way it functions

Question 30

How does Parfit’s thought experiment, that of Star Trek’s teleportation, highlight the differences between dualism, functionalism and materialism?

Answer 30

The teleportation works by disassembling the particles of a person’s body and reassembly at the latter location of destiny.
1. In dualism (cartesian), the mind would not survive as it is immaterial and would not be able to teleport with the rest, leaving the body without a mind at the destination
2. In functionalism, the mind would be fine as information is stored within the physiological network of the brain and, if the latter is restored, the mind would be intact (dependent on informational code staying intact, regardless of the same or a new brain)
3. In materialism (complete reductionism, that is), the mind would survive without any loss of information, if the exact same brain is reassembled (dependent on the exact particles of ones brain being reinstated)

Question 31

How does functionalism reinsate the possibility of free will?

Answer 31

Information can be considered as independent of the matter on which it is realized, as such, the ways in which said information can be encoded, stored, retrieved and manipulated enables persuits differing to those of the genes

Question 32

What does the concept of “memes”, introduced by Dawkins, mean?

Answer 32

Information units that reproduce themselves according to the principles of the evolutionary theory (variation, selection and replication)

That is to say, Dawkin sees humans not only as slaves to genes, but also to this informational realm (and as such, still opposed free will)

Question 33

What are two problems with functionalism?

Answer 33

1. There seems to be a much closer link to informational processing and brain functioning (and the body) than functionalism poses
2. The symbol grounding problem; representations used in computations require some external reality to give meaning to them (i.e., computers rn cannot survive independently). This suggests that the above

Question 34

What is embodied cognition?

Answer 34

Notion that interactions between the human body and the environment form the grounding (meaning) of human cognition

Question 35

Information as currently implemented in computers does not posess the phenomenoligical richness of that of humans, as such Block proposed a divide in consciousness (2), and Dehaene et al., proposed an additional one, which are these?

Answer 35

1. Access consciousness = can be reported, used for reasoning and acted upon
2. phenomenoligical = human experiences’ posession of subjective qualities that defy description
3. (Dehaene et al.) self-monitoring = ability of a cognitive system to monitor its own processing and obtain information about itself

Question 36

What two instances of evidence for unconscious processes in humans are discussed in the book?

Answer 36

1. Masked priming = presentation of a prime (cannot be consciously perceived) between a meaningless mask and the target (examining the effects tend to = relevant prime, even without conscious perceival, is faster target identification)
2. Implicit memory = e.g., performance benefits even without the recollection of learned skill

Question 37

What are two main differences between conscious and unconscious processing?

Answer 37

1. Unconsciouss seems less rich and integrated
2. Humans cannot deliberately act on it

Question 38

What is the global workspace model?

Answer 38

A model of access consciousness; human mind compared to a theatre. A lot of activity behind the scenes, but the activity on the scene must be visible to all, in order to synchronise the various activities

Question 39

What are qualia?

Answer 39

Qualities of conscious thoughts that give the thoughts a rich and vivid meaning, grounded in interactions with the world.

Question 40

Searle, Jackson and Chalmers give three thought experiments (the Chinese room, Mary and the zombie world). How do these illustrate the two problems with functionalism?

Answer 40

1. Chinese room > You do not know Chinese, are locked in a room and are regurlaly supplied with a character, in which you have to answer with a correct one in turn. You have a rule-book that outlines how so. The longer you are there, the better you will be at it, but are you a master at Chinese?
2. Mary > Given all the physical properties of, e.g., the sky in a colourless room. However, do you not learn a single other thing about the sky when you are let out of the room?

The point = a processing model based on the application of the rules (algorithm) on shapes (symbols) stays devoid of meaning. A computer process does not equal human thinking

3. Zombie > something about being able to imagine a world/ourselves without phenomelogical experiences

The point = Consciousness cannot be reduced to functionalism, trying to grasp it as such > hard problem

Question 41

How does embodied cognition possible pose a solution to the symbol grounding problem?

Answer 41

As it poses the notion that representations gain meaning through interactions between the body and the environment

note that mixed evidence has been found for the above

Question 42

What does Nagel argue against materialism?

bat paper

Answer 42

Nagel argues that conscious experience, necessarily means the existence of subjectivity of experience (i.e., one could not possess conscious experience without the subjective experience of being something, like a human or a bat). He basically argues that you cannot reduce consciousness to its pure physical as exclusion of phenomenal properties is impossible (as it would require you to abandon the subjectivity, which cannot be done as it is a necessity in conscious experience).

Question 43

Reword Nagel’s (bat paper) argument with an example of your own

Answer 43

One could collect every (currently known) fact about depression (e.g., biological fundamentals, the range of symptoms, etc.), but this does not equate that of the actual (subjective) experience of having depression. In practice, even two people with the same clinical diagnosis of depression, rarely experience it as the same (symptoms differ, reactions differ, emotions differ, etc.).

Question 44

Reductive vs non-reductive materialism?

Answer 44

1. The mind is reduceable to the biological processes in the brain (reductive)
2. The mind is dependent on the biological processes in the brain, but “emerges” from it and = non-reduceable