Identity Theories (Smart) Flashcards
Who wrote the sensations and Brain Processes?
J.J.C. Smart
Physicalists believe the mind is?
physical
Materialist fall under what category?
physicalists
What is usually the materialists view?
usually some kind of identity theory
What view did Smart hold?
a materialist view
Physicalist have to be careful of?
NOT to separate the mind and body because once separated it is hard to put back together. So be aware of the ditches on either side of the road and do no go into them
Give an overview of the article “Sensations and Brain Processes”
1) Clarify self-reporting on the mental
2) Materialism is the identity theory
3) Clarify and strengthen potential objections
What did Ryle’s believe someone reported when they said they were in pain?
a behaviour
What is the problem with behaviourism?
Behaviourism doesn’t describe a state of anything but rather just dealing with patterns of behaviour
What was Descartes answer to “if someone reported they were in pain?”
an irreducible state
Fill is Smart’s quote
“It seems to me that science is increasingly giving us a viewpoint whereby organisms are able to be seen as _________…even the behaviour of man himself will one day be explicable in ___________________ terms. There does seem to be, so far as science is concerned, nothing in the world but increasingly complex arrangements of _______ constituents.”
a) physical chemical mechanisms
b) mechanistic
c) physical
What theory holds this view? The theory that holds that for every TYPE of mental state there is a numerically identical brain state
The identity theory
fill in the blanks for the identity theory:
The theory that holds that for every TYPE of mental state there is a__________
numerically identical brain state
Put the identity theory into lay terms
mental states just are brain states
According to Smart minds are different from brains?
No the opposite actually that the minds are brains
how would the identity theory explain sensation?
sensations are just mental stuff.
they are not caused by brain processes
Does materialism argue by causation?
No
According to Materialists what happens when you see the color red?
one reports a physical state that that we are in but the we are in is a brain state
When I red I am in brain state X
What does the materialist think when you are in a state of pain?
that your C fibre stimulation is being activated, the pain state is just this and IS NOT a causation of the pain.
The brain state is the mental state one is in even if you know nothing of it you’re still report it
The general idea is that mental stuff is entirely______
physical stuff
What was smarts argument for materialisms?
1) everything except consciousness can be explained in physical terms
2) it is strange if consciousness were the only thing that couldn’t be explained in physical terms
C: it seems consciousness must be explicable in physical terms
Fill in the quote that argues for materialism:
It seems that everything except______ can be explained in physical terms.
But it would be very strange if ____________ were the only thing that couldn’t be explained in physical terms.
Therefore, it seems_______ must be explicable in physical terms.
1-3) consciousness
Fill in the quote by smart
“That everything should be explicable in terms of physics…except the occurrence of_______ seems to me to be frankly unbelievable.”
Non physical minds and mental states would be “__________”
1) sensations
2) nomological danglers
Explain nomological danglers
things that dangle outside the law of physics
Materialism is a theory of?
identification
What were germs once considered?
demons
describe the identity theory with A’s and B’s
A’s are nothing more then B’s. If so then A’s can be reduced to B’s
What example can be given to explain the counter-intuitive, or simply put the attitude of resistance that its very difficult to treat mind and brains as if there is zero distinction)
Ancient Tribes intuitions:
Morning Star: The star that they see in the morning before the sunrise in the eastern sky
Evening Star: the star they see at sunset in the western sky
Both stars mean different things to the tribe however they have no clear they are talking about venus, they’re referring to the same star without knowing it
according to smart what is the brain?
the brain is the mind and the mind is the brain. People talk about them as if they are different but in reality they are the same
What would Descartes objection to Smart be?
I can imagine myself thinking perfectly fine without understanding what’s going on in my body. So the two cannot be identical
Does Smart disagree with Descartes objection?
No he does not disagree that we can imagine them differently, however we can imagine many things differently that are not different. Water/H20, Morning Star/Venus
All that Descartes means that even if someone says that they are different doesn’t actually make them different
Fill in the quote according to materialism views
Pain could have turned out to be more than _________________, but as a matter of fact, it is not
neurological processes
What is the #1 criticism towards Smart?
Chauvinism
