Philosophy of mind vocabulary

Question 1

Substance dualism

Answer 1

The view that humans are composed of two types of substance: mind and matter

Question 2

Substance

Answer 2

A basic kind of stuff or thing, something which doesn’t depend on anything else to exist

Question 3

Category error

Answer 3

Things belonging to one category are presented as if they belong to a different category, or a property is ascribed to a thing which cannot possibly have this property

Question 4

Solipsism

Answer 4

The view that nothing beyond my own mind, including the external world and other minds, can be known to exist

Question 5

Folk psychology

Answer 5

Folk psychology is the theory of mind held by ordinary people. It is claimed that our everyday picture of the mind as a private world of sensations, emotions and beliefs constitutes a theoretical framework which we use to explain and predict behaviour

Question 6

Behaviourism

Answer 6

This is a theory about the meaning of our language of the mind. It claims that our talk of mental states does not involve reference to others’ internal states. Rather it is a way of talking about people’s behaviour and their dispositions to behave in various ways.

Question 7

Analytic reduction

Answer 7

To reduce one phenomenon to another is to explain it in terms of another.

Question 8

Ontological reduction

Answer 8

An explanation of one kind of phenomenon in terms of something more fundamental, eg, when chemists say water is H20.

Question 9

Intentionality

Answer 9

: The quality of certain mental states which directs them beyond themselves and to things in the world. It’s what makes mental states, such as beliefs about something.

Question 10

MBI`

Answer 10

All mental states are identical to brain states (ontological reduction) although mental state and brain state are not synonymous (so not an analytic reduction).