Mind, Body and Philosophy Flashcards
What is the mind-body problem?
Does our mental states affect physical states or do physical states affect the mental?
Facial feedback theory of emotion states that…
Physical states affect mental, in the example of holding a pen in your mouth can increase feeling of happiness.
What does the mind-body dualism say about the brain and the mind?
The brain is qualitatively different from the mind.
Descartes proposed that there are two types of substance: material and immaterial. What is this called?
Substance Dualism.
Describe property dualism
property dualism refers to there being two types of property in the world; physical and meta-physical.
Describe predicate dualism
There are 2 types of predicates, physical and psychological. Physical predicates can be broken down into constituents but psychological ones can’t due to subjectivity.
What answers the problem of how the mind and body interact?
Interactionism, it proposes that the mental and physical casually influence each other.
What is the problem with Interactionism and dualist?
If material and immaterial are so different then how is energy transferred between the two & how do they have enough commonality?
What is one solution to Interactionism?
Epiphenomenalism- physical events cause mental events but the mental can’t cause the physical.
Parallelism is another answer to interactionsim…
Parallelism refers o the idea that mental and physical events are in continual harmony and neither causes the other.
One problem with Dualism is that the mental can’t be located. What alternative theory accounts for this?
Physicalism. metaphysical claim that everything has underlying physical properties.
What is Supervenience?
The idea that even abstract psychological, biological and social constructs have underlying physical properties.
Problem…How does Physicalism explain Qualia (subjective experience of things)?
Physicalism can’t account for Qualia because it’s difficult to explain in purely physical terms.
What is Synesthesia?
Condition where you experience one sense in terms of other senses e.g seeing music.
What is intentionality?
Intentionality refers to the capacity of mental states to represent the world as it is.
What are the 3 different ways to think about how the mind and body might interact?
Interactionism, epiphenomenalism and parallelism.
What does the Identity Theory of Mind say about the mind and the brain?
Although the mind and brain differ in their meaning they refer to the same entity. They are not merely correlated but are one and the same.The mind is contingent upon the functioning of the brain. Physical and mental events can be subject to empirical investigation.
What is Functionalism?
Theory that claims mental states are defined by what they do rather than what they are made of.
What is an argument against Functionalism?
Artificial Intelligence shows that its possible for something to act like it has a mind despite not having one.
What is an argument against Functionalism and in particular the analogy that the human mind is like a computer?
The Chinese room argument by Searle 1980
The Chinese room argument shows that…
Intelligible outputs from computers doesn’t mean they understand just as the person in the room doesn’t understand Chinese.
Strong AI vs Weak AI- explain this.
Strong Ai is the argument that computers cognitive abilities similar to humans. Searle refutes this argument. Weak AI is the argument that computers can simulate cognitive abilities but doesn’t claim that they understand.
