Task 2

Question 1

Easy and hard problems of consciousness

Answer 1

Easy problems: How does the brain process environmental stimulation? How does it integrate information? How do we produce reports on internal states?
Hard problem: Why is all this processing accompanied by an experienced inner life?

Question 2

Phenomenal concept of mind

Answer 2

The concept of mind as conscious experience, and of a mental state as a consciously experienced mental state.

Question 3

Psychological concept of mind

Answer 3

The concept of mind as the causal or explanatory basis of behavior. A state is a mental state in this sense if it plays an appropriate role in the explanation of behavior.

Question 4

Ryle’s logical behaviorism

Answer 4

The view that all our mental concepts can be analyzed in terms of types of associated behavior, or in terms of dispositions to behave in certain ways.

Question 5

Functionalism

Answer 5

The view that a mental state is defined wholly by its causal role (i.e. in terms of the kinds of stimulation that tend to produce it, the kind of behavior it tends to cause, and the way it interacts with other mental states).

Question 6

Properties of mental concepts

Answer 6

Mental properties are either phenomenal, psychological or relational (relational being a type of property that can account for the fact that certain beliefs may depend on the state of the environment)

Question 7

Mind-mind problem

Answer 7

The link between the psychological mind and the phenomenological mind.

Question 8

What type of property are beliefs?

Answer 8

Belief is most often regarded as a psychological property - to believe in a proposition is to be in a state where one acts in a way that would be appropriate if the proposition was true, but some think differently which leads to deflationary concept and inflationary concept of belief.

Question 9

Deflationary concept of belief

Answer 9

The concept of a belief as purely psychological, not involving conscious experience.

Question 10

Inflationary concept of belief

Answer 10

The concept of a belief as requiring a specific sort of conscious experience for truly believing a specific proposition.

Question 11

Aspects of psychological consciousness

7

Answer 11

1. Awakeness
2. Introspection
3. Reportability
4. Self-consciousness
5. Attention
6. Voluntary control
7. Knowledge