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C82CHI 18/19 > Mind, Body and Philosophy > Flashcards

Mind, Body and Philosophy Flashcards

1
Q

What is the mind-body problems?

A

Trying to understand the relationship between the mind and body or the relationship between physical and mental properties

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2
Q

What are physical properties?

A

Height, weight shape, colour, motion

They are observable, public and measurable

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3
Q

What are mental properties?

A

Consciousness, intentionality

More difficult to measure e.g. can observe if someone is happy but hard to measure happiness

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4
Q

What are the six big questions that arise from the mind-body problem?

A

What are mental and physical states? Is one subordinate to the other or do they co-exist as separate entities?
Do physical states affect mental states or do mental states affect physical?
What is consciousness and how does it relate to the mind and body?
What is intentionality and how does it relate to the mind and body?
What is the self? How does it relate to the mind/body?
What does embodiment mean? Is the mind housed in the body or does the body belong to a particular subject?

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5
Q

What is dualism?

A

Believe that something can be broken down into two categories

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6
Q

What does dualism contrast with?

A

Monism - something can be broke down into one principle/category
Pluralism - something can be broken down into multiple categories

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7
Q

What are the three types of dualism?

A

Substance, property and predicate

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8
Q

Who proposed substance dualism?

A

Descartes

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9
Q

What are the types of substance in substance dualism?

A

Material - don’t have experiences
Immaterial - mental experiences, don’t exist in space
Different properties and made of different things

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10
Q

What is the difficulty with substance dualism?

A

How do these two distinct substances interact in such a way that physical events can influence and affect mental events

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11
Q

What are the types of property in property dualism?

A

Physical and meta-physical

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12
Q

How does property dualism relate to the mind-body problem?

A

When matter is appropriately organised mental properties emerbe. Properties are not reducible to firing neurons or neurobiology instead matter is organised to produce emergent properties like consciousness

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13
Q

What two statements does predicate dualism make?

A

Mental predicates are necessary for a complete theory of the world
Mental predicates cannot be reduced to physical predicates

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14
Q

What does predicate dualism say about predicates?

A

Two different types in language - physical and psychological

Required to make sense of world

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15
Q

What is interactionism?

A

Mental states can cause physical states and vice versa

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16
Q

Problems with interactionism?

A

If material and immaterial are so different, how can they have enough commonality to interact with one another
Law of conservation - energy can only be converted, how does this occur between material and immaterial

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17
Q

What is epiphenomenalism?

A

Physical events cause mental events but not vice versa

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18
Q

Problems with epiphenomenalism

A

Does not help us understand how mental emerges from physical

If mental events do nothing then why would they have evolved

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19
Q

What is parallelism?

A

Mental and physical events are in continual harmony with each other but neither causes the other

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20
Q

What did Liebniz believe about parallelism?

A

Pre-existing harmony set up by God ithin universe that meant both physical and mental could run parallel without having to interact

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21
Q

Problems with parallelism?

A

Seems implausible outside a religious perspective

22
Q

What is the issue of location in dualism?

A

Physical events are located in time and space and are casually connected
Mental events are subjective and intentional
How can we locate subjectivity and intention in space and time?

23
Q

What is physicalism?

A

Alternative to dualism

The metaphysical claim that everything is physical

24
Q

How is physicalism distinguished from materialism?

A

Not as strict as mterialism

Physicalists include entities such as energy, magnetism, gravity etc. - physical but not made of ‘matter’

25
Q

What is supervenience?

A

Idea that even abstract psychological, biological or social contructs have underlying physical properties

26
Q

What is qualia and why is it a problem for physicalism?

A

Qualia - the feelings/qualities of things

Physicalism is false because there are things that are difficult to explain in purely physical terms

27
Q

What is synaesthesia?

A

A condition where you experience one sense in terms of other senses

28
Q

How does synaesthesia relate to physicalism?

A

Highlights how subjective perception of reality can radically differ - perhaps can explain everything from a physicalist perspective

29
Q

What is intentionality?

A

The capacity for mental states to represent the world as it is

30
Q

What is the ‘identity theory of mind’?

A

Claims that mental and physical events are one and the same

Mental states are expression of biological states and so presumably are made of the same kind of stuff

31
Q

What are two classic papers regarding identity theory of mind?

A

Is Consciousness a brain process? - U.T. Place 1956

The Mental and the Physical? - H. Feigl 1958

32
Q

Why is there a problem according identity theorists?

A

Problem has arisen because philosophers have confused meaning and reference

33
Q

What is anomalous monism?

A

Based on three basic principles:
At least some mental events casually interact with at least physical events
Events related by causes must follow strict laws
There are no strict laws that mental events can relate, explain and predict other events

34
Q

Who came up with anomalous monism?

A

Donald Davidson

35
Q

What is eliminative materialism?

A

Any form of materialism or physicalism automatically excludes the mental
If mental events are physical events then our lack of a language to describe those physical events is just that and no more

36
Q

What did Feyerabend (1963) argue?

A

That our intuitions about the relationship between mind and body are simple wrong

37
Q

Who are Paul and Patricia Churchland?

A

Two vocal exponents of eliminative materialism

38
Q

What is functionalism?

A

Claims that mental states are defined by what they do rather than what they are made of

39
Q

What are the key characteristics of functionalism?

A

Not committed to a physicalist or dualist view of the world

Allows different physical instantations of the same mental states

40
Q

What is the problem of absent or inverted qualia for functionalism?

A

Absent qualia - possible to imagine a being whose mental state is exactly that as described by a functionalist account but whose mental state has no ‘quale’
Inverted qualia - possible to imagine a being whose mental state is exactly that as described by a functionalist statement but whose ‘quale’ is not the same as another person i.e. seeing green when someone else sees red

41
Q

What is the problem ‘a conceivable zombie’ relating to functionalism?

A

It is possible to conceive of a zombie without a mental state who functionally acts like a being who posses mental states
If it is possible to conceive of this zombie then it must be a meta physical possibility some day that this zombie will exist and be functionally similar to human.
Therefore functionalism cannot be a good account of the mind/body problem since it is possible for something to functionally act like it has a mental states and a mind despite not having one.
Supporters of functionalism make the obvious point that it is really not possible to conceive of zombies who act functionally like they possess mental states.

42
Q

What does functionalism say about thinking machines?

A

If functionalism is correct then machines and animals can ‘think’

43
Q

What is the Chinese Room Argument?

A

First published by John Searle 1980
The argument is used to support the idea that although a computer may appear to understand it does not have in real sense understanding
Used to support the idea that the mind is a result of biological processes that can only be poorly imitated by computers

44
Q

What does the Chinese room Argument state?

A

Searle finds himself alone and locked in a room. All of sudden a piece of paper with a set of instructions that looks a lot like a computer program is slipped under the door. Using the program he is able to manipulate Chinese symbols, which he does not understand. He takes the Chinese symbols coming into the room and is able to produce Chinese symbols and send them out of the room. If an outside with no knowledge of this came along they would assume that whoever was in the room knew Chinese
The ability to manipulate symbols in a functional way is not evidence that a machine is actually thinking.

45
Q

What is strong AI?

A

Computer can understand natural language and can demonstrate other cognitive abilities similar to humans

46
Q

What is weak AI?

A

Computers are useful as they stimulate human bilities but do not claim that computers understand or are intelligent

47
Q

How does the Chinese Room Experiment relate to strong and weak AI?

A

Refutes strong AI but makes no claims against weak AI

48
Q

What is the systems reply to the chinese room experiment?

A

Whilst the man inside the machine does not understand Chinese, he is just a part of a whole system
The whole system working together does understand Chinese

49
Q

What is the robot reply to the chinese room experiment?

A

Searle in room might not understand Chinese but does not mean that another program configured differently wouldn’t be capable of understanding

50
Q

What is the brain simulator reply to the chinese room experiment?

A

Similar to the robot reply, a computer could understand if it simulated the operation of a brain more closely.

51
Q

What is the other minds reply to the chinese room experiment?

A

Know that humans understand based on behavioural responses to tasks - why assume that Searle inside room does not understand since we have behavioural data indicating that he does

52
Q

What is the intuitions reply to the chinese room experiment?

A

Man inside the room claims not to understand but he does

One’s intuition of understanding can be false

C82CHI 18/19 (10 decks)

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