Philosophy of Mind

Question 1

‘What is the mind?’ is what type of question?

Answer 1

An ontological question

Question 2

What are the two ontological views?

Answer 2

Monism and Dualism

Question 3

Reasons to reject dualism

Answer 3

P1 - can you actually perceive of your mind existing without any physical body?
P2 - you can conceive of impossible things

How can we control our bodies

Question 4

The argument for dualism and rejections

Answer 4

P1: I can conceive my mind existing without my body
P2: If i can conceive something it must be possible
P3: It is possible for my mind to exist without any physical body existing
P4: If it is possible for my mind to exist without any physical body existing then my mind is not identical to any physical body
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C: My mind is distinct from my body

P1=can you actually conceive of your mind existing without any body?
P2 = you can conceive of impossible things

Question 5

Argument for rejecting dualism.

Answer 5

P1: If dualism is true, then bodies are extended and minds are not extended.
P2: Extended things cannot causally interact with things that are not extended.
P3 (sub-conclusion): If dualism is true, then bodies cannot causally interact with minds.
P4: Bodies and minds can causally interact.
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C: Dualism is not true.

Question 6

What is monism and what two types are there?

Answer 6

The view that there is only one kind of thing in the world so therefore minds and bodies must be the same kind of thing.

Materialism: everything that exists is physical
Idealism: everything that exists is mental

Question 7

What is solipsism and the argument for it and rejections?

Answer 7

The view that the only thing that exists is the mind.

P1: The only things that exist are things that are known for certain to exist
P2: The only thing certain to exist is the mind
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C: The only thing that exists is my own mind

P1= there may be things that exist that we don't know for certain exist eg, aliens 
P2 = subjective

Question 8

What is Berkley’s ‘master argument’ for idealism and rejections?

Answer 8

P1: If idealism is false, then it is possible for something to exist without any mind existing
P2: If something is possible, then I must therefore be able to conceive of it
P3: I cannot conceive of a thing existing without conceiving
P4: Whenever I conceive of anything, my mind exists
P5 (sub-conclusion): Therefore, I cannot conceive of something existing without any mind existing
P6 (sub-conclusion): Therefore, it is not possible for something to exist without any mind existing
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C: Idealism is true

P2= something can be possible without us being able to conceive of it eg, really hard physics

Question 9

What is physicalism?

Answer 9

The view that everything is physical, even believing, wanting feeling ect.

Question 10

What is ‘Jackson’s Mary’?

Answer 10

An example in which Mary has never seen colour (because of some fancy contact lenses) but knows everything there is to know about seeing red.
When her lenses are taken out and she actually sees red, then she learns something new.

Question 11

What is the argument for Jackson’s Mary and rejections?

Answer 11

P1: If physicalism is true, then Mary knows everything there is to know about colour vision.
P2: Mary does not know everything there is to know about colour vision.
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Conclusion: Physicalism is false.

P1= there is more to knowing what something is like than just knowing the facts.
P2= Maybe Mary didn't learn anything new when the lenses were removed.

Question 12

What is the difference between strong AI and weak AI

Answer 12

Strong = genuinely intelligent 
Weak = imitating intelligence

Question 13

What is the Turing test?

Answer 13

If one can have a conversation with a computer (not knowing it’s a computer) and not being able to tell if it is human or not, then it is genuinely intelligent.

Question 14

What is Searle’s Chinese Room’s argument against strong AI and rejections?

Answer 14

P1: If strong AI is true, than any system that runs the Chinese-understanding room programme thereby understands Chinese
P2: Searle can run the Chinese-understanding programme without understanding Chinese
P3: There is at least one system or entity without understanding Chinese
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C: Strong AI is false

P2: Searle is only a part of the system, it is not him which understand’s Chinese but the whole system

Question 15

What is the slilcon chip argument for Strong AI and rejections?

Answer 15

P1: If intelligent computers are possible, then strong AI is true.
P2: It is possible that we could develop microchips which send and receive information exactly as neurons do.
P3: It is possible that we could replace an intelligent human’s neurons with microchips that send and receive information exactly as neurons do.
P4: If an intelligent human’s neurons were replaced with microchips that send and receive information exactly as neurons do, then there would be no change to the intelligence of that human.
P5 (sub-conclusion): We could, in principle, create a computer as intelligent as a human.
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Conclusion: strong AI is true.

P2+P3= are they really possible?
P4:This relies upon the idea that what matters for mental activity is function.

Question 16

What is functionalism and what are the tree types?

Answer 16

The view that what makes a mental state is its functional role

Machine-state: minds are Turing machines and mental states are computers
Analytic: mental states have the functions that common sense says they have
Empirical: mental states have the functions we discover they have through scientific inquiry.

Question 17

What is the philosphical zombies argument against functionalism and rejections?

Answer 17

Philosophical zombies: a functional duplicate of a human person who has no mental qualities.

P1: If functionalism is true, then it is impossible for there to be two beings exactly alike functionally, but differing in that one is a zombie
P2: It is conceivable that there may be two beings exactly like in function, but differing in that one is a zombie
P3: If something is conceivable it is possible
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C: Functionalism is false

P2: is it conceivable?
P3: Can conceive of impossible things

Question 18

What is eliminativism?

Answer 18

the view that something doesn’t exist and reference to it should be eliminated

Question 19

What is eliminative materialism/physicalism?

Answer 19

the view that nothing that exists is mental, so we shouldn’t say things like “I’m happy”. It contrasts the folk psychological view of minds and mental functions.

Question 20

Argument for eliminativism.

Answer 20

P1: Eliminativism is true if and only if we should not accept that mental entities exist.
P2: : We should accept that the entities a theory posits exist if and only if it is a good theory.
P3: Folk psychology is a theory that posits mental entities.
P4: Folk psychology is not a good theory.
P5: (sub-conclusion): We should not accept that mental entities exist.
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Conclusion: eliminativism is true.

The whole argument rests upon whether you believe folk physchology to be a good theory, if P4 is reversed the argument has the opposite conclusion