Mind, Body and Philosophy

Question 1

What is the mind-body problem?

Answer 1

Does our mental states affect physical states or do physical states affect the mental?

Question 2

Facial feedback theory of emotion states that…

Answer 2

Physical states affect mental, in the example of holding a pen in your mouth can increase feeling of happiness.

Question 3

What does the mind-body dualism say about the brain and the mind?

Answer 3

The brain is qualitatively different from the mind.

Question 4

Descartes proposed that there are two types of substance: material and immaterial. What is this called?

Answer 4

Substance Dualism.

Question 5

Describe property dualism

Answer 5

property dualism refers to there being two types of property in the world; physical and meta-physical.

Question 6

Describe predicate dualism

Answer 6

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.

Question 7

What answers the problem of how the mind and body interact?

Answer 7

Interactionism, it proposes that the mental and physical casually influence each other.

Question 8

What is the problem with Interactionism and dualist?

Answer 8

If material and immaterial are so different then how is energy transferred between the two & how do they have enough commonality?

Question 9

What is one solution to Interactionism?

Answer 9

Epiphenomenalism- physical events cause mental events but the mental can’t cause the physical.

Question 10

Parallelism is another answer to interactionsim…

Answer 10

Parallelism refers o the idea that mental and physical events are in continual harmony and neither causes the other.

Question 11

One problem with Dualism is that the mental can’t be located. What alternative theory accounts for this?

Answer 11

Physicalism. metaphysical claim that everything has underlying physical properties.

Question 12

What is Supervenience?

Answer 12

The idea that even abstract psychological, biological and social constructs have underlying physical properties.

Question 13

Problem…How does Physicalism explain Qualia (subjective experience of things)?

Answer 13

Physicalism can’t account for Qualia because it’s difficult to explain in purely physical terms.

Question 14

What is Synesthesia?

Answer 14

Condition where you experience one sense in terms of other senses e.g seeing music.

Question 15

What is intentionality?

Answer 15

Intentionality refers to the capacity of mental states to represent the world as it is.

Question 16

What are the 3 different ways to think about how the mind and body might interact?

Answer 16

Interactionism, epiphenomenalism and parallelism.

Question 17

What does the Identity Theory of Mind say about the mind and the brain?

Answer 17

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.

Question 18

What is Functionalism?

Answer 18

Theory that claims mental states are defined by what they do rather than what they are made of.

Question 19

What is an argument against Functionalism?

Answer 19

Artificial Intelligence shows that its possible for something to act like it has a mind despite not having one.

Question 20

What is an argument against Functionalism and in particular the analogy that the human mind is like a computer?

Answer 20

The Chinese room argument by Searle 1980

Question 21

The Chinese room argument shows that…

Answer 21

Intelligible outputs from computers doesn’t mean they understand just as the person in the room doesn’t understand Chinese.

Question 22

Strong AI vs Weak AI- explain this.

Answer 22

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.