Revisions

Question 1

when do we say the condition is both necessary and sufficient?

Answer 1

when it has the same meaning as the state of affair

Question 2

The only theory with no strict correlation between the MS and PS is

Answer 2

Interactionist dualist

Question 3

Does causal closure imply a certain explanation

Answer 3

No. it can accommodate a non-reductive explanation

Question 4

What is reductionism

Answer 4

MS is explained totally by the PS without any reminder.

Question 5

Non-reductive physicalism is an epistemic or ontologic question

Answer 5

epistemic (MS is identical to PS) but in order to explain we need the MS language.

Question 6

1. What is knowledge a priori?
2. What is knowledge a posteriori?
3. What is a synthetic claim?
4. What is an analytic claim?

Answer 6

1. Knowledge obtained independently from experience.
2. Knowledge obtained through experience.
3. A claim goes beyond the meaning of the subject term. It is true in virtue of states of affairs rather than the concepts involved.
4. A claim that does not go beyond the meaning of the concepts involved, i.e. it is true only in virtue of the concepts.

Question 7

13. What does the Gettier objection claim?
14. What does Identity Theory hold?
15. What is the main claim of eliminative materialism?

Answer 7

13. The criteria proposed by the traditional account of knowledge are not sufficient to distinguish cases of knowledge from non-knowledge. Something else is required to make the distinction.
14. Mental states are identical to brain states, even though mental concepts differ in meaning from physical concepts. Both types of concepts have the same referent.
15. Mental state vocabulary should be eliminated because folk-psychology (which includes mental state vocabulary) is a bad scientific theory.

Question 8

21. How does functionalism differ from logical behaviorism (semantic physicalism)?
22. What is the difference between access consciousness and phenomenal consciousness?
23. What is the relation between the Extended Mind Thesis and functionalism?

Answer 8

21. Behaviorism reduces mental states to behavioral reactions. Functionalism claims that mental states can be individuated as set of inputs (stimuli), outputs (responses) and mediating states. Behaviorism excludes the mediating states.
22. Access consciousness is availability for rational and voluntary control. Phenomenal consciousness is experience, they are states of which there is something ‘it is like’ to be in that state.
23. Some types of functionalism entail the Extended Mind Thesis. In particular, radical functionalism entails the thesis. Other forms of functionalism may not (psychofunctionalism).

Question 9

29. How does determinism differ from physicalism?

Answer 9

29. Physicalism is a claim about what there is in the world, namely, only physical stuff. It can also be taken as the claim that all information is physical information. In contrast, determinism is the claim that every state of the world is determined by the previous states. Determinism does not require physicalism, as dualism can also be deterministic (all mental states are also determined). Conversely, physicalism does not entail determinism (all information might be physical information and still physical states might not be determined solely by the previous states of the world).