History and Philosophy of Etiology Flashcards
Define etiology
Study of animal behavior
What are the 5 components of the mind?
Introspection
Phenomenal/experiential
Action/thought
Conscious vs unconscious
Knowing why you do what you do
Introspection component of the mind
Where/what is your mind
Phenomenal/experiential component of the mind
You can sense the world
Action/thought component of the mind
Decide what to do next, choose to do it/not to do it
Perceiving, making connections/decisions
Conscious vs Unconscious component of the mind
Being aware of much of what you’re doing, but not all of it
What is metaphisics
Mind vs matter
What are the two routes of metaphysics
Dualism and monism
What is dualism
Mental and physical are both real, separate, autonomous domains
Define autonomous
the capacity to make an informed, uncoerced decision
What are the two subcategories of dualists?
Substance dualists vs property dualists
What do both substance dualists and property dualists believe
Mental/physical are real and autonomous
What do substance dualists and property dualists disagree on
Whether mind and matter are made of the same or different “stuff”
What is monism
Mind and matter are of the same domain (only one domain)
What are the two subcategories of monism
Physicalists vs idealists
What do physicalists and idealists disagree on
Whether the world is physical or only an idea
What is a large historical debate in etiology
Do animals have thinking, rational minds?
Which historical figures did not believe animals have thinking, rational minds and what time period did they live in?
Aristotle (384-322 BC)
St Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274 AD)
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804 AD)
Rene Descartes (1596-1650 AD)
What were aristotle’s 3 arguments?
Humans share some essential functions with animals but what distinguishes us is that we have reason
Animals are not rational; they act only on instinct and emotion
Humans are “The Rational Animals”
What was St. Thomas Aquinas’ argument?
Animals were created by god to serve humans’ purposes
Killing animals is moral bc it benefits the human race
What was Immanuel Kant’s reasoning
Animals lack personhood and act only on desires
Animals are property
What is personhood?
The ability to consider consequences and reasons for actions
What was Rene Descartes’ argument?
Animals lack language, and therefore cant have thought. Animals lack the ability to reason, are mindless automata
What is reason
Universal instrument of using general principals when responding to environmental cues
Which historical figure was more accepting of animals having minds and what time period did he live in
Voltaire (1694-1778 AD)
What was Voltaire’s reasoning?
Animals do exhibit behaviors that are indicative of rational behavior
What animal behaviors are indicative of rational behavior?
Learning, problem-solving
Which historical figure was very accepting of animals having minds and what time period did he live in?
David Hume (1711-1776 AD)
What was David Hume’s reasoning?
Animals having minds is “an evident truth” and is visible to anyone who bothers to look
Used argument from analogy
What was David Hume’s argument from analogy?
Animals exhibit some human-like behaviors so we can assume they have similar mind mechanisms
What two things do you need to establish the existence of animal thought/reason?
Theoretical viewpoint on what kinds of capacities are required as evidence of a thinking, reasoning “mind”
Empirical evidence for such capacities in evidence
Why are these two things needed to establish the existence of animal thought/reason?
Your opinion going into an experiment will determine what you are looking for and the conclusions you will draw
What are the four types of arguments for animal minds?
Arguments from analogy
Arguments from evolutionary parsimony
Inference to the best explanation arguments
Direct perception arguments
What do arguments from analogy rely on
Extrapolating from human experience
Explain argument from analogy
Humans have a mind and certain properties, another animal has this property, so this animal probably has a mind
What is the disadvantage of argument from analogy
It is difficult to apply to species with very different lifestyles, sensory systems, etc
What argument is argument from evolutionary parsimony similar to?
Argument from analogy
What is the difference between argument from analogy and argument from evolutionary partimony
Evolutionary parsimony is more of a biological approach
Explain the concept of argument from evolutionary parsimony
The mind is an evolved feature.
Humans have minds, therefore animals closely related to us likely also show evidence of mind when they produce the same behaviors that we produce through mental processes
Explain the argument from evolutionary parsimony in terms of phylogenetic trees
Two species will share a last common ancestor. All three species will produce a behavior that emerged before the species split, and is attributed to the mind.
What does inference to best explanation arguments rely on
The scientific method; Generates and tests hypotheses
What do inference to best explanation arguments argue
If the best explanation for a given behavior is that the individual has a mind, then individuals of a species that exhibit this behavior are likely to have minds
What is important in inference to best explanation arguments
To think about what hypotheses we are testing ours against. Think of non-mind explanations and test to see if this alternative solution is the cause.
What is the general basis of direct perception arguments
Animal minds are obvious. We dont need to prove them because we can directly perceive them. Basically, “just look at them, they definitely have minds”
What do direct perception arguments believe
We have a detector (like other senses) for perceiving if a creature has a mind. If we ignore what that detector tells us and revert to having to prove it from scratch, we are missing the point
What is the nature of direct perception arguments
Non-inferential
Which historical figure relied on direct perception arguments
Hume
What two ideas did Charles Darwin come up with (direct quotes)
“There is no fundamental difference between man and the higher mammals in their mental faculties”
“Difference in mind between man and the higher animals is one of degree, not of a kind”
What type of evidence did Charles Darwin rely heavily on
Anecdotal evidence
What idea was Darwin’s argument based on
Evolutionary continuity
Explain the idea of evolutionary continuity
We differ in the extent to which we express certain features, like mind
What did George Romanes observe?
He trapped an ant, another ant saw and grabbed his ant friends for help
What did George Romanes believe
Ant behavior was a demonstration of having a mind
What argument was George Romanes’ belief based on
Argument from analogy
What is anthropomorphism
Interpreting things in an overly human form. Attribute human-like thought and feeling to non-human entities
What was Lloyd Morgan’s Canon?
We cant interpret an action as being evidence for having a human-like mind if it can be interpreted as a lower psychological mechanism
What does Lloyd Morgan’s Canon suggest?
We have to start with simple solutions rather than assuming all behavior can be attributed to mind
What happened with Clever Hand?
A horse in the 1900s was thought to exhibit the ability to do math problems. He thumped his food in response to questions, but the trianer was accidentally giving him physical cues that suggested the answer
What does behaviorism believe
The most important factor in behavior is experience
Who was a large supporter of behaviorism and in what time period was this
John Watson (1878-1958)
What was John Watson’s argument on behaviorism
If given a dozen healthy infants and his specified world to bring them up in, he could take any one at random and train them to be successful in any type of career. This is independent of talent, penchant, tendency, ability, vocation, and race.
What is the thought process behing behaviorism
Unobservable mental constructs have no place in psychology. Focus must be on observable and quantifiable behavior
What are unobservable mental constructs
Thought, mind, feelings, consciousness
What was John Watson’s argument on the philosophy of behaviorism
Its theoretical goal is the prediction and control of behavior. Introspection cannot necessarily be linked to behavior. A behaviorist recognizes no dividing line between man and animal in his efforts to get data on animal response.
What is the overarching theme of behaviorism
The internal, mental world is irrelevant
Who believed in the “Law of Effects” and what year was this
Thorndike (1898)
Explain Thorndike’s “Law of Effects”
Responses that produce a satisfying effect in a particular situation become more likely to occur again in the same situation. Responses that produce a discomforting effect become less likely to occur again in that same situation
What modern day concept is Thorndike’s “Law of Effects” in line with?
Classical conditioning
Who focused on operant conditioning and instrumental learning during the rise of behaviorism, and during what years?
B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)
What is operant conditioning?
Instrumental conditioning
What did Skinner use to show operant conditioning
The Skinner Box
What was the skinner box?
What two studies contradicted Behaviorism and during what time periods
Maze learning in rats (Tolman, 1948)
Song Learning in Sparrows (marier and Peters, 1989… revisited by Ln Shettleworth, 2010)
Explain maze learning in rats
Explain Song learning in sparrows
Isolated song sparrow chicks and swamp sparrow chicks. THey were both exposed to playback of songs of both sparrow species. Both species were more likely to learn the song of their own species
What would the behaviorist hypothesis of song learning in sparrows be
Behaviorist would predict that they should both learn whatever song they’re exposed to
What is the main takeaway from song learning in sparrows
Cognition is an adaptation to process certain types of information relevant to the animal. It is not a general purpose info-processing mechanism
What was the cognitive revolution
A period of time beginning in the 1950’s and 1960’s which overtook behaviorism as the dominant paradigm in psychology in the 1970’s
What is the cognitive revolution based on
Cognitive science
What type of experiments were performed during the cognitive revolution
Experiments in human psychology that stimulated similar experiments with animals
What does the cognitive revolution/cognitive science emphasize (4 things)
The mind is not a blank slate
The mind is not a black box
The mind is not a general purpose-association device
The mind should be treated like an information processor, with many interacting parts. We should be interested in how these parts process info and fit together
What are the two components from modern biology that influence cognitive science
Genetics
Behavioral Ecology and Tinbergen;s Ethology
How does genetics fit into animal cognitive science
Cognition is heritable and hence subject to evolution by natural selection
How do Behavioral Ecology and Tinbergen’s Ethology fit into animal cognitive science
They stress the importance of considering behavior and cognition as situated in an animal’s natural environment.
Tinbergen’s 4 questions provide a holistic understanding
What were Niko Tinbergen’s “4 questions” for studying animal behavior and cognition
Proximate
1. Mechanism
2. Ontogeny (development)
Ultimate
3. Adaptation
4. Phylogeny
