LECTURE 2 Flashcards
DUALISM
Mind and body (brain) are separate. Mind is “immaterial” and inherently different from brain. - Descartes believes in this
MATERIALISM (MONOISM)
Physical matter is the only thing that exists. Therefore, mind and consciousness are the results of physical
processes in the brain. - Einstein believes in this
PENFIELD EXPERIMENT
Woman’s brain was cut open and poked with electrode to see how different areas of the brain reacted to electrical stimulation (served to show what area of the brain was responsible for what)
MIND-BODY SOLUTION?
Mind is generated by and dependent on brain. If mind and brain are one, then study of the brain
should reveal insights into the nature of the mind. It is also theoretically possible to build an artificial
mind from physical components. Is the brain a computer?
‘HARD PROBLEM’
We know we are conscious, so we assume the same for other humans. We assume that computers don’t have consciousness. Is this wrong? How do we know this? Are one person’s consciousness and feelings the same as another’s?
Do we see the same colors? Do we perceive the same thing differently? Someone colorblind might see a banana as blue but call it yellow because that’s what everyone calls it. Thus the color we call blue they call yellow but we perceive different colors. How can we know this?
TURING TEST
Put a human on a computer and have them message someone on the other hand. Have a convo and determine if the person you are speaking to is a robot or not. If a computer can carry this out and not be detected, that means they are conscious.
THE CHINESE ROOM
Searle – Where does meaning
arise in an information processor? A symbol manipulator can appear to understand without understanding. Symbol manipulation (e.g., language use) is not sufficient to explain cognition (Just because a computer passes the Turing Test, this does not mean it understands the meaning of what it is saying)
SYMBOL GROUNDING PROBLEM
Symbol – something that represents something else (the referent). Symbols (such as words) must be
grounded in their referents somehow. How do you know what the word “zebra” means? How do we ground these symbols? Perception is the “native language” of the mind. Our entire experience of reality and existence is based on perceptual referents and language / symbol use follows from this. Understanding symbols begins with perception. Can someone who has never
seen color “understand” the concept of color?
QUALIA
The subjective experience of perception.
TWO TYPES OF PERCEPTION BELIEFS
- Naive realism: Everyone perceives reality truly as it is. There is only one reality and we all perceive it the same way (if we have the same mechanisms)
-Idealism: Everything is made up in your head. What we believe is reality is actually a solely a construction of our mind. We can only be sure of our own qualia, thus everyone has different realities. (someone kicked a stone to attempt disproving it saying this hurts so obv its real.)
- Middle Ground Perception: Our perception of reality
is actively constructed by our brains based on limited sensory information. As these limitations are the same (or very similar) for humans, we have similar (though not necessarily identical!) perceptions of reality. Perception = Sensation + Experience
SCIENTIFIC REALISM
Our best scientific theories correctly describe the nature of the mind-independent world
BOTTOM UP PROCESSING
Sensory information builds up to a percept. Works simultaneously with top-down processing to determine perception.
TOP DOWN PROCESSING
Prior knowledge disambiguates/molds
sensory information. Directs attention. Works simultaneously with bottom-up processing to determine perception.
