Philosphical behaviorism

Question 1

What is philosophical behaviorism ( 3m answer):

Answer 1

A family of theories that claim that our talk about the mind can be analyzed in terms of talk about behavior. The meaning of our mental concepts is given by behavior and behavioral dispositions.

Question 2

what is Hempel’s hard behaviorism

Answer 2

Hempel’s version of philosophical behaviorism claims that statements containing mental concepts can be reduced or translated into statements about behavior and physical states containing no mental concepts only physical ones . Also known as “ analytical” behaviorism or “logical” behaviorism.

Question 3

What is the verification Principle

Answer 3

A statement is meaningful If and only if it is either analytic or empirically verifiable

Question 4

what type of translation does Hempel make

Answer 4

a dysjuntive translation ( a finite list of statements)

Question 5

Explain why according to Hemple the meaning of the psychological claim is the same as the neurophysical statement ?

Answer 5

There is no loss of meaning between a psychological statement and neurological statement. It is a total analytic reduction ( a=b=c is also a=c)

Question 6

what are the three conclusion of Hempels account of meaning?

Answer 6

1. IF you cannot say what the conditions of verification are then the statement is meaningless
   2. Two statement have the same meaning if they are both true and false under the same conditions
2. We can translate a statement into a series of statements that simply describe the conditions of verification

Question 7

what is Ryles Soft behvaiorism

Answer 7

Ryles version of philosophical behaviorism claims that our talk of the mind is talk of how someone does or would behave under certain conditions. However behavioral dispositions are not reducible to a finite set of statements about how someone would behave, nor to a set of statement containing no mental concepts.

Question 8

list three way Hempels and Ryle differ

Answer 8

• Hempel believes in a disjunctive translation whereas Ryles believes in a partial translation
  
  • Ryles does not believe we can remove mental states completely whereas Hempel believes talk of mental states is only talk about behavior
  • Ryles claims that talk about the mind is talk about dispositions of behavior whereas Hempel believes talk about the mind is talk about physical behavior.

Question 9

what is a category mistake

Answer 9

to treat a concept as belonging to a different logical category from the one to which it actually belongs.

eg.In the university example the person is making a category mistake as to think the concept of the university is different and separate to the colleges and professors. So treating the “university” as not belonging to all thee other parts so is misunderstanding what it actually belongs to

Question 10

definition of behavioral dispositions

Answer 10

A tendency to behave in certain ways given certain conditions

Question 11

what are the two different types of disposition and which does Ryle believe is the type which describe behavioral dispositions

Answer 11

Single track disposition: a disposition which is actualized in only one way
eg. Solubility is the disposition to dissolve when placed in water

Multi track dispositions: a dispositions which can beee actualized in multiple ways

Eg. A proud person would walk with their nose turned up, that will have not admit to when they make a mistake, or not asking for help. But being proud can manifest itself in may way

Question 12

what are the two mistake ryle believes the Substance dualist makes

Answer 12

• that the mind is a substance same as the body ( as argued by Descartes ) because they are put in the logical category of being substances then they must posses certain properties like being ontologically independent.
• The second mistake involves viewing mental states (thoughts, beliefs, desires, etc.) as belonging to the same kind of causal framework as physical states. Substance dualists think of mental states as paramechanical—a mysterious kind of “mechanism” that functions alongside but is different from physical mechanisms. this is a category mistake bc Mental states do not operate like physical states or mechanisms at all. They are not hidden causes or effects but rather outwardly observable patterns of behavior and dispositions.