Epistomology of Mind

Question 1

What are the arguments for: Do we have privileged and peculiar access to our own mental states?

Answer 1

1. Background
2. Armstrong
3. Rationalism and Transparency

Question 2

What is privileged access to our mental states?

Answer 2

I am more likely to be right about my mental states than that with others’.

• It seems as though I cannot be wrong.

Question 3

What example does Byrne use to show that we have privileged access?

Answer 3

Jim knows that he believes it is raining, seemingly without possibly being wrong.

He may be wrong about whether Pam believes it is raining.

Question 4

What is peculiar access of our mental states?

Answer 4

I know my mental states in a way that no one else can.

• Non-Observational or need for evidence.

Question 5

What is Byrne’s example of peculiar access?

Answer 5

Jim must observe and find out whether Pam wants coffee.

But Jim knows directly whether he wants coffee.

Question 6

What does the materialist object to and why in regards to knowing our own minds?

Answer 6

That we have peculiar access.
- This is because we seem to be unable to explain physically what this peculiar access is.

Question 7

What is Ryle’s argument?

Answer 7

A form of behaviourism.
- For privileged but against peculiar.
- To be angry is to be disposed to have certain behaviour.
- We learn from an internal observation.

Question 8

What does Armstrong claim against Ryle?

Answer 8

There is something it is like to be angry even if I do not exhibit certain behaviours.

Question 9

What does Armstrong believe is the logical connection between mental states and behaviour?

Answer 9

Mental states cause behaviours.
- Mental states must be physical for this causal power.

Question 10

What example can we use to demonstrate the logical connection between mental states and behaviour?

Answer 10

What we observe is the behaviour which we name pain, and this is physically caused by the mental state of C-fibres.

Question 11

What is consciousness for Armstrong?

Answer 11

Perception of our own mental states.
- Self-scanning.

Question 13

What does Moran argue for Rationalism and Transparency?

Answer 13

That we do have privileged and peculiar access to mental states.

Question 14

What is Moran’s Transparency?

Answer 14

Questions about my mental states are transparent to questions about the outside world.

• My answer to whether I believe “that p” is the same as the answer to the question “whether p”.

Question 15

Why must questions about our mental states be transparent to the outside world?

Answer 15

Because we are rational agents.

• If I determine that the evidence means I ought to believe something, then I must believe that thing.

Question 16

How is transparency privileged and peculiar?

Answer 16

Privileged because it is extremely reliable.

Peculiar because only I can use transparency to know my mental states.

Question 17

What is Nisbett and Wilson’s experiment that goes against rationalism and transparency?

Answer 17

The Right-hand bias example:
- We often do not know the causal reasons for our judgements.
- We often make them up.
- We do not know the difference between introspection and confabulating.

Question 18

Why is The Right-Hand bias example against rationalism and transparency?

Answer 18

Because the reasons for our beliefs and actions are often not clear for us.

If we had transparency we would know that our judgement is because of our right-hand bias.

Transparency often leads to the wrong results.

Question 19

What is your conclusion for: Do we have privileged and peculiar access to our own mental states?

Answer 19

Armstrong and Ryle are against peculiar access but for privileged access.
- For it to make sense with physicalism.

Shoemaker shows that we attribute our mental states to ourselves without observation.

Moran argues for peculiar and privileged.
- This is based on our ethical commitment to rationality.
- Also physicalist.

N&W show that transparency often leads to the wrong results.

Question 20

What are the arguments for: Do we make judgements about the mental states of others by means of a theory?

Answer 20

1. Background
2. Theory-Theory
3. Simulation Theory

Question 21

What is the question we ask in regards to other people’s minds?

Answer 21

How are we so good at mind reading.

Question 21

What is folk psychology?

Answer 21

A common-sense understanding of how other minds work.

Question 22

What is the core idea in Theory-Theory?

Answer 22

Mindreading is underpinned by a tacit theory of how minds work.

Question 23

What is a tacit theory?

Answer 23

An implicitly known set of laws.
- In contrast to professional sciences.

Question 24

What are some examples of tacit laws?

Answer 24

Law of pain: If S is suffering from clear body language, then S will, in normal circumstances, feel pain.

Law of sight: If S is in front of O, S directs her eye-gaze to I, everything being normal, then S will see O.

Question 25

In what way does Theory-Theory relate to functionalism?

Answer 25

The tacit laws define the meaning of mental terms.

Question 26

What is the benefit of Theory-Theory?

Answer 26

It claims that our common-sensical understanding of other people’s minds is structured like theories.
- It can explain why we seem to be so consistently correct.

Question 27

What are the two issues with Theory-Theory?

Answer 27

• Is it good as a theory?
• Too much knowledge?

Question 28

Why is Theory-Theory not good as a theory?

Answer 28

It assumes it is doing the same work as scientific psychology of causally explaining behaviour.
- But it is based on surface level findings.
- Eliminativists claim that folk-psychology is backwards (analogy?)
- Based on what we know and will likely discover, Theory-Theory will probably be found to be false.

(possible response?)

Question 29

What is the too much knowledge complaint against Theory-Theory?

Answer 29

• It seems we need high-levels of knowledge to mindread.
• Infants do not seem capable to form hypothesis by we know they can mindread.
• Theory-Theory implies language use.

Question 30

What is the claim of Simulation Theory?

Answer 30

We figure out the mental state of others by exploring our own minds and psychological mechanisms to simulate the mental states and situations of other people.

Question 31

What analogy can we use for Simulation Theory?

Answer 31

Learning about plane interactions with air through simulations.

Question 32

What do we use to simulate other people’s mental states?

Answer 32

A Decision-making system.
- It takes beliefs and desires as inputs and generate a behaviour as output.

Question 33

What do we do to our mental states when simulating?

Answer 33

We quarentine them and replace them with others’.

Question 34

How does Simulation Theory get over the too much knowledge complaint?

Answer 34

We do not need to know how this system works.
- No internal set of rules.
- We can primitively simulate others’ minds as infants.

Question 35

What are False Belief Tasks and how does Simulation Theory get around it?

Answer 35

FBT: infants being unable to not attribute their own perspective onto others.

• They simply fail to quarentine their inputs.

Question 36

What are the two issues with Simulation Theory?

Answer 36

• How are we so good?
• Do we know enough about ourselves?

Question 37

What is the how are we so good complaint towards Simulation Theory?

Answer 37

There are so many possible inputs that contribute to people’s behaviour.
- We do not always consider all these factors.
- But we remain consistently correct.

Question 39

What is the do we know ourselves enough complain against the response to the how are we so good complaint against ST?

Answer 39

Nisbett and Wilson showed that we are not infact that good at knowing our own inputs for decision making.
- If our predicting of others is dependent on our knowledge of ourselves, and our knowledge of ourselves is flawed, how do we get it right about others?

If we are always right about inputs (against N&W) then how can we ever be wrong?

Question 41

What is your conclusion for: Do we make judgements about the mental states of others by means of a theory?

Answer 41

Theory-Theory deals well with erroneous predicitons of ourselves and others.
- It is also compatible with physicalism.

It struggles with infants and competing psychology.

ST deals well with infants but struggles with erroneous predicitions of ourselves and others.

We should combine the two, ST for when we a infants, whilst we develop our TT.