Lecture 8 - Free will and subjectivity

Question 1

For which school of thought about the mind-body relation, is the brain not essential for the mind and why?

NOT dualism lol

Answer 1

Functionalism; thought processes are computer programs, independent of the device itself

Question 2

What is the Turing Test?

Answer 2

A test to see if a turing machine acts indistinguishable from a human (at which point, Alan Turning believes it should be granted consciousness)

Question 3

What are the strong AI thesis and the weak AI thesis?

Answer 3

1. Strong = computers can have consciousness
2. Weak = computer can be used as a tool for understanding human cognition

Question 4

Searle, who posed the Chinese Room, was against the strong AI thesis, why?

Answer 4

He believes that the computer can never develop meaning (and that consciousness is a biological phenomenom). The turing test is not a sufficient test to claim consciousness

Question 5

What is one counterargument to Searle’s Chinese room? How does Searle respond?

Answer 5

1. That the person may not understand Chinese, but the system as a whole does (paper + room + etc.)
2. Simulation does not equate realization; The system that knows English does so by inference in a conversation (the person knows what a hamburger refers to, etc.), the Chinese system only knows that a combination of certain symbols require a combination of other symbols in turn

Question 6

What is the cognitive closure hypothesis?

Answer 6

Our cognition does not permit us the ever comprehend consciousness

Question 7

What do (some) studies about the timing of decisions vs behaviour find?

By Libed and others

Answer 7

Behaviour is already being started in the brain before the decision is made

Question 8

As of Libet’s research into the timing of decisions vs. behaviour, what was his opinion on free will?

Answer 8

He did not reject them, as the inhibition he also sees as free will

Question 9

What is determinism?

Answer 9

There is no choice, you could not have done something else as the physical state of the world at T determines the physical state of the world at T+1

Question 10

Why does Hossenfelder not believe in free will?

Answer 10

The indeterminism of quantum mechanics does not solve this problem; adding random jumps to particles does not feel like a free choice

idk tbh

Question 11

What is the problem with determinism/mental states are not independent causes?

Answer 11

The exclusion problem; As P fully causes P2, how does M still play a causal role without overdetermination?

Question 12

What is a counterargument against Libet’s experiment?

Answer 12

The readiness potential does not equate unconscious preparation of an action > it is instead a random fluctuation of activity in the motor cortex

Question 13

What are three other ways to “save” free will?

aka not counterarg. against Libet

Answer 13

1. Physics does not fully describe the world
2. Compatibilist (free will is consistent with the laws of physics)
3. Conceptualize free will differently (not as a cause)