lecture 1

Question 1

what are the three tasks of Philosophy of Mind?

Answer 1

1. assessing the certainty of claims
2. Interpretation of results
3. Speculating about the metaphysical - i.e. thinking outside the box, e.g. false belief test

Question 2

Dennet claims understanding others involves…

Answer 2

perspective taking

Question 3

what is descartes substance dualism?

Answer 3

humans exist of a mental and a physicl substance

Question 4

what is a substance?

Answer 4

a building bloc of reality

Question 5

the property of physical substances

Answer 5

extension - shape, size - location in space

Question 6

mental substance

Answer 6

thinking

Question 7

problem with Descartes principle

Answer 7

even though I can doubt that I am not my body does not necessarily mean that its not true

Question 8

nisbett and Descartes 1977

Answer 8

which pair of pantyhoses do you prefer?

subjects point to attributes, but not the cause of their preference.

Question 9

what is logical positivism?

Answer 9

is a theory in Epistemology and Logic that developed out of Positivism and the early Analytic Philosophy movement, and which campaigned for a systematic reduction of all human knowledge to logical and scientific foundations.

ideal of scientific method

scientific unification by means of reduction, layered model of reality

Question 10

gilbert ryle: ‘the concept of mind’

Answer 10

statements about the mind are actually dispositions for behaviour

Question 11

cartesianims difference between intelligent and unintelligent behaviour

Answer 11

the former is caused by the mind - paramechanical hypothesis

Question 12

but ryle answers cartesianism

Answer 12

the mind is not a thing that causes our behaviour but a concept referring to behavioral dispositions

Question 13

holism of the mental

Answer 13

there is no one to one relation between the mental and behaviour, same mental state + different circumstances lead to different behaviour