Material Mind Flashcards
Mind and Body Problem
Problem of understanding the relationship between the mind and body is
Example:
If the mind and the body are seperate
Dualism
Human mind and body are seperate, two things operating
Substance Dualism
Is Cartesian Dualism, named after Descartes
- Mind isn’t brain
- Mind exists as a seperate substance from body, composed of different substances
Two types of substances:
Non-physical/immaterial (mind and soul)
Physical/material (bodies and brain)
Non-physical
How do you weigh or measure a soul?
Physical
Can be weighed and measured
Descartes Arguments:
- Mind and body are different substances
- Mind is immaterial and certain therefore cannot be changed, degraded or destroyed
- Mind and body causally interact with one another
1st Meditation:
Senses are not trustworthy, and senses are bodily therefore it’s subject to change and deception and the mind does not change.
- Cannot be certain we have a body
2nd Meditation:
- One thing certain - My Mind!
- “I think therefore I am”
- We are a thinking thing
- I can conceive myself without a body
- Mind knows better than senses (body), a doctor might know your body better then you but never your mind
Wax analogy
Wax is put next to a fire, it loses it’s shape, colour, smell and taste. Does the same wax remain? Yes. Despite what we had perceived through our senses the wax is still wax and we know that.
- We know our surroundings through reason, the mind is better known then the human body.
6th Meditation P1
P1: I can be sure I have a mind
P2: I cannot be totally sure that I have a body
C: Therefore, mind and body are two different substances
6th Meditation P2
P1: Mind is permeant and unchanging
P2: Physical things are always degrading
C: Therefore mind is not physical but must be a non-degrading substance
6th Meditation P3
P1: Ideas in mind resulted from physical behaviour
P2: Physical experiences that produce ideas in mind
C: Mind and body must interact with each other
Materialism/Physicalism
Belief that everything is physical, just a physical body of which the mind is an aspect of located or identical to the brain
Problem for Descartes:
Mind and body are two different substances, therefore how can they work together?
‘Out of Body’ Experiences
Evidence for substance dualism. Experiences that involve sensations of floating above the ground
Armstrong’s Identity Theory of Mind
- Mind identical to the brain
- All there is to us is chemical reactions
“Purely physico-chemical terms”
WE HAVE NO GOOD REASON TO DISAGREE TO THE SCIENTIFIC VIEW THAT OUR BRAIN IS OUR MIND
Armstrong’s Overall Argument
P1: Mental states are the inner causes of behaviour
P2: The inner causes of behaviour are brain states and processes
C: Therefore, mental states are identical with brain states and processes
C: Therefore, materialism must be correct
Traditional Behaviourism
The mind is not something behind behaviour, but simply part of the behaviour
Disposition
Something likely to happen
Eg. If we dropped a fragile glass we assume it will break because in other experiences glasses have a habit of breaking
- We think in a certain way to behave in a certain way
Problem of Consciousness
Theory of mind doesn’t explain consciousness
IS nothing but perception or awareness of the state of our own mind
Qualia
- Challenge for materialists
- “What it’s likeness”
- Is the subjective qualities of our conscious experience
- What makes us, us and different from other people
- Minds are objective
What it’s like to be a bat?
I don’t know what it’s like to be a bat and never will as I am only me.
Elements of our mental minds are impossible to access through science technology
Knowledge Argument
- Unphysical properties can’t explain mental facts such as an itch or being bored
Mary knows everything there is about the physical properties of colour, but has never seen colour, when she leaves the room she will obtain new experiences of colour.
Qualia must exist if Mary learns something when she experiences colour first hand
Turning Test
A person, Lucy, is communicating on a computer to two other supposed people. In room A there is a person at the computer and in room B there is just a computer running a person like program. If Lucy cannot differentiate between the two that must mean machines can think
Theological Objection to Turning Test
Thinking only occurs when we have been bestowed by God. God would never give a machine an immortal soul
Reply:
God could decide to give one to a machine
Disabilities Objection to Turning Test
A computer can’t do things that humans can such as enjoy strawberries and cream, fall in love, make mistakes.
Reply:
This is prejudice. In the future it might be possible for a machine to experience these
The Chinese Room Argument
Against the idea computer’s could think.
There’s a room with a person inside who interprets messages in Chinese characters that are slid under the door. He doesn’t know that they are Chinese but decipher’s them using a manual and responds to the message. He doesn’t understand Chinese at all but is simply interpreting it
- Computer don’t create meaning to words like humans do
Monism
View that mind and body are one thing
Ontology
Existence, determining what we know exists
Behaviourism
Behaviour aquired through conditioning
Immaterialism
Physical things have no objective existence
