Materialism

Question 1

Define materialism

Answer 1

The mind is a physical entity - mental states are reducible to states of the brain

Question 2

What is Churchland’s eliminative materialism? (3)

Answer 2

• Claims that involving mental states is part of a ‘folk psychology’ that is false
• It postulates entities that do not exist
• BUT postulating these entities may have instrumental value (e.g. could help us predict behaviour of people)

Question 3

What is Skinner’s psychological behaviourism? (4)

Answer 3

• Mental states are unobservable
• So talk of mental states isn’t useful to the scientist
• We can only observe behaviour through stimulus-response correlations
• This doesn’t mean that claims about mental states and dualism are false or meaningless, just that they’re irrelevant to science

Question 4

What are the 3 types of behaviourism?

Answer 4

• Psychological
• Philosophical
• Logical

Question 5

Who created the analogy of the ghost in the machine?

Answer 5

Ryle

Question 6

What is philosophical behaviourism? (3)

Answer 6

• The mind is an aspect of behaviour
• To be in a given mental state is to be in a certain behavioural state/be disposed to behave in a certain way
• e.g. to be in pain is to be disposed to wincing/screaming

Question 7

What is logical behaviourism?

Answer 7

Belief that claims about mental states are synonymous with statements about a person’s actual and possible behaviour

Question 8

What does Wittgenstein say about logical behaviourism? (2)

Answer 8

• We learn the meanings of words by associating utterances and behaviours
• Understanding the concept of words requires a grasp of its role in some language games

Question 9

What does Carnap say about logical behaviourism?

Answer 9

• Presents a form of verificationism
• Claims about mental states (unobservables) are meaningful in as much as they can be translated into claims about behaviourism (observables)

Question 10

Summarise Ryle’s dispositional view (3)

Answer 10

• Having a mental state = being disposed to certain types of behaviour
• Where dispositions are analysed in terms of hypothetical statements (If p then q)
• A belief is a disposition to behave in a certain way

Question 11

Give example of a dispositional belief

Answer 11

If p then q

If I believe that good grades will get me a good job then my disposition is to study for my philosophy exam

Question 12

Give the benefits of dispositional belief (3)

Answer 12

Belief as dispositions:

• Are accessible objects of study for empirical science
• Are compatible with materialism
• explain how beliefs cause us to do things (in the psychological sense of motivation)

Question 13

Explain how dispositional views could raise some technical problems with verificationism and psychological behaviourism (3)

Answer 13

• Things can possess a disposition but never manifest them (e.g. a glass can have a disposition to shatter, but never fall and shatter)
• Technically speaking, that makes a disposition an unobservable
• If it is an unobservable, we’re back to the same problem we have with mental states

Question 14

What are the issues with dispositional beliefs?

Answer 14

1) Behavioural analyses tend to be left open ended (no precise limit on list of things you may/may not be disposed to doing)
2) One can hold several mental states at same time, each amounting to distinct/conflicting dispositions to behave in a certain way
3) Leads to a charge of circularity and incomplete explanation (“Joan believes it’s going to rain so Joan is disposed to avoid the rain” relies on assumption that Joan desires to stay dry)
4) Doesn’t take propositional content of belief into account (actions are motivated by propositional content of beliefs)

Question 15

Who was identity theory developed by?

Answer 15

Place, Smart & Feigl

Question 16

What does identity theory state? (2)

Answer 16

• Mental states are identical with brain states, and minds are identical with brains
• Empirical claim, on par w/ claims that water is identical to H2O

Question 17

What are the PROS of identity theory? (2)

Answer 17

• Solves the mind-body problem

- Parsimonious solution to the mind-body problem

Question 18

What are the CONS of identity theory? (2)

Answer 18

• Seems counter-intuitive

- Leibniz principle of the identity of indiscernibles says that no 2 distinct things exactly resemble each other

Question 19

Leibnitz’ example for his principle of the identity of indiscernibles

Answer 19

Say there were a machine that could produce thoughts/feelings/emotions, then you go inside it and find just a bunch of parts -> we would not see anything which would explain our perception

SO you should not go inside the brain to attempt to explain mental states (e.g. we would not experience pain by examining the brain of someone in pain)

Question 20

Response to Leibnitz (3)

Answer 20

• His objection rests on ignorance
• When we come to know more about the brain, we will feel comfortable in attributing a spatial location to mental states
• Equating the mental experience with the physiological mechanism that produces it

Question 21

Identity theory seems counter-intuitive because we are committing what?

Answer 21

The phenomenological fallacy

Question 22

Explain the phenomenological fallacy (quote and explanation)

Answer 22

“When we describe the after image as green, we are not saying that there is something that is green, but rather that we are experience what we normally experience when we see a patch of green light”

Basically, mental states are experiences of brain states, not things that in themselves are brain states