materialism - philosophical behaviourism

Question 1

what is physicalism?

Answer 1

an umbrella term for anything that isn’t dualism
everything depends on physical properties or is physical

Question 2

what is supervenience?

Answer 2

properties layer on top of each other, type A supervene on type B
painting as an example, the aesthetic properties supervene on the physical properties, but cannot change B without changing A
brain made of 1 substance (matter) but we are not sure how we make mental images (they supervene)

Question 3

what is multiple realisability?

Answer 3

one mental state can be realised in many different physical states, they were correlated one to many not one to one (unlike what behaviourism argues)

Question 4

logical behaviourism

Answer 4

someone’s behaviour is a reflection of their mind, it focuses on dispositions to behave
deny the existence of the mind altogether, making the mind/body problem a pseudo-problem

Question 5

analytical behaviourism

Answer 5

statements of the mind are statements that describe dispositions to behave
mental states are no more than dispositions to behave
the mind is just the behaviour of the body - mind does not cause the behaviour, it is the behaviour
no obscure mental properties to account for

Question 6

hard behaviourism

Answer 6

all propositions about mental states can be reduced without loss of meaning to propositions that exclusively use the language of physics to talk about bodily states/movements
because mental states are private and unverifiable, mental terms can only be meaningful if they apply to something public like behaviour - analytically reduce mental terms to behavioural terms
behaviour and body language must be exactly how one is feeling
uses verification principle (Ayer)
follows the bottom of Hume’s fork
we can never lie about how we are feeling due to Hume’s fork because it has to be consistent

Question 7

Delores and Paul examples (Hard Behaviourism)

Answer 7

Dolores steps on a nail and starts swearing, jumping around on one leg, making efforts to remove the nail from her foot, according to Hempel the observable behaviour must constitute what it means to say she is in pain - it is not a private experience, it is just the behaviour. the feeling of pain can be empirically established
a. Paul weeps and makes gestures of such and such kinds
b. at the question ‘what is the matter?’ paul answers ‘i have a toothache’
c. closer examination reveals a decayed tooth
d. his blood pressure, digestive processes, reaction speed show such changes
e. processes occur in Paul’s central nervous system

Question 8

soft behaviourism

Answer 8

Ryle
reducing the mind to merely bodily movements
the distinction of the body and the mind can be explained in terms of observable behaviour
mental states are dispositions to behave
smoking, for example, being a smoker does not mean one is smoking in this or that moment (due to some circumstances such as eating, sleeping, or at a funeral) just that one has the disposition to later on
when one stops smoking or is not in this moment, they do not stop being a smoker