Exam 2

Question 1

Descartes reasons for doubting senses

Answer 1

sometimes your senses may deceive you and therefore cannot be trusted (if the source of a belief is unreliable, then you must doubt the belief)

Question 2

arguments for illusions

Answer 2

illusions can make you see things that are not truly there which further proves that senses should be doubted

Question 3

arguments for dreams

Answer 3

if you cannot rule out the possibility that you are dreaming, then your sensory beliefs are unjustified

Question 4

descartres reason for doubting reason

Answer 4

reason could be doubted because an all powerful figure might deceive you

Question 5

arguments for evil demon/genius

Answer 5

if an all powerful figure is constantly deceiving us (anything that we believe is actually false), how can we come to the conclusion that we are being deceived. being that we cannot be sure of anything (or know anything)

Question 6

role of skeptical scenarios in doubt

Answer 6

for your sensory beliefs, you cannot rule out all the skeptical scenarios, which means that you do not know things via the senses

Question 7

role of certainty in existence in doubt

Answer 7

in terms of dreams you are essentially creating your own reality… therefore whats to say that your reality isn’t a dream (essentially your existence is uncertain)

Question 8

role of god’s existence in doubt

Answer 8

descartes tries to prove that God exists but if God is omnipotent then he would not allow constant deception

Question 9

necessary conditions

Answer 9

a condition that must obtain for the concept to apply (a is a necessary condition for B if B can only happen with A occurring). specifying necessary conditions does not guarantee that something will happen but is necessary for it to occur

Question 10

sufficient conditions

Answer 10

a condition that suffices for the concept to apply (a is a sufficient condition for B if the occurrence of A ensures the occurrence of B) sufficient conditions guarantees the truth of the condition but is not necessary for the condition to occur

Question 11

traditional analysis

Answer 11

in order for something to be true there needs to be both necessary and sufficient conditions

Question 12

justification

Answer 12

justification qualifies a belief as knowledge (S know that P if P is true, S believes that P, and S is justified in believing that P) justification must be met for knowledge to be a true belief

Question 13

gettier cases

Answer 13

proves that the definition of knowledge is insufficient. essentially S can believe P (P can be true and S can be justified in believing that P) but still not have any knowledge of it (refutes JTB theory)
ex. Smith has knowledge that Jones has a ford and believes Jones is in Barcelona (this is believed, true, and justified) but is it knowledge if he hasn’t seen Jones (he sold his car) and hasn’t seen Brown for days (although he is in barcelona)

Question 14

JTB theory

Answer 14

knowledge is equivalent to a true belief if justification, truth and belief are met

Question 15

mind body problem

Answer 15

bodies are material and minds are immaterial, but material things do not interact with immaterial things and bodies and minds do interact

Question 16

body is material and mind is immaterial

Answer 16

bodies are physical properties (subject to physical laws) minds are an element of a person (it does not have a location, mass or shape)

they do interact because when you try to understand a joke (mind) you laugh (body)

Question 17

idealism

Answer 17

rejection that bodies are material because we could hold that the whole world is in our minds

Question 18

ephenomenalism

Answer 18

rejects interaction of body and mind (mental effects have mental causes and physical effects have physical causes or mental events have physical causes but not the other way around

Question 19

interactionist dualism

Answer 19

rejects that the material do not immaterial interact. holds that there is an interaction between material and immaterial at least with mind/body problem

Question 20

arguments for dualism

Answer 20

religion: major religions are committed to the notion of an immortal soul, if there is an immortal soul then dualism is true
introspection: when we focus on our consciousness, we perceive thought and feelings rather than the actual process, therefore thoughts and feelings are immaterial (if thoughts are immaterial and our brain processes are material then dualism is true)
irreducibility: the way you smell something is a mental phenomenon but it cannot be fully explained by physical processes, therefore mental phenomenon are physical phenomenon
parapsychology: some people can read other’s minds but there is no explanation for telepathy, if there is no explanation then the mind is immaterial and separate from the brain

Question 21

identity theory

Answer 21

idea that the mind is identical to the brain (individual mental states and processes are identical to individual brain states and processes)
ex. pain is identical to c-fibers firing, but does that mean nothing can be pain unless c-fibers are firing
chauvinism: mind=brain, then it is impossible to have a mind without a brain (robot?)

Question 22

functionalism

Answer 22

mental states are identified by their functional role not by their physical properties

Question 23

searle’s chinese room experiment

Answer 23

person in chinese room does the same thing that a computer does (correlates sets to associate meanings of symbols) if the computer understands outputted conversation, so does the person. if the person does not understand then neither does the computer. computers do not think

Question 24

computer programs cannot understand meaning

Answer 24

a computer program will simply associate a meaning with something but does not truly understand it (there are no internal processes occurring)

Question 25

challenges towards building artificial mind

Answer 25

artificial minds are capable of stealing your jobs (working jobs we tend to work, but this can increase efficiency and shorten work week), killing you (cannot tell between good and bad guys), and replacing humans in general ( A.I.s will be better and faster than humans especially at creating A.I. to the point where humans can no longer comprehend A.I.’s)

Question 26

materialism

Answer 26

everything can be explained in terms of matter

Question 27

challenge of subjunctive experience to materialism

Answer 27

we can know everything about bats (internal processes) but we will never truly know what it feels like to be a bat. therefore explanation of being something in terms of matter doesn’t mean we truly know/understand it.

Question 28

qualia

Answer 28

properties of experience

Question 29

knowledge arguments against materialism

Answer 29

if materialism is true, then you know everything relative to a claim. if you learn something from a claim then you do not know everything relative to the claim. therefore materialism is false

Question 30

difference between qualitative and quantitative identity

Answer 30

quantitative identity is having two things that are exactly the same are distinctly two different things (clark kent and superman are two different identities but same individual)
qualitative identity is referring to two distinct objects as identical (different colored ties are different object but are still all ties)

Question 31

different views of personal identity

Answer 31

body view: we are identical to our bodies (when the body dies, so do we) but if this is true then we cannot switch bodies (this is possible)
mind view: we are fundamentally minds (we could survive death of the body as long as the mind is transferred to a different body) but if your mind is copied which one is your mind if they are both you
soul view: we are fundamentally souls (survives on its own after the death of the body) but if true then judgements about personal identities are not justified

Question 32

combination views

Answer 32

with any combination involving body once the body dies it is only the other that survives (wouldn’t it just be simply mind or soul view)