Topic 2 Mind-body problem Flashcards
What are the two components in Descartes’ Dualism theory?
BODY(material with spatial extent) AND MIND(nonmaterial)
Mind and body are separate, but can interact: the mind can control the body, but the body can’t affect the mind.
How did some people use the Dualism theory to justify inhumane treatment of children?
Dualism theory argued that the mind develops with language, so children under 7 didn’t have minds and the mentally ill had “lost their mind”. Some dualists use this to justify the inhumane treatment of young kids. (alternative 1: The ability to use language to communicate was the definition of an organism having a mind. Young kids and infants were not really people because they couldn’t speak.)
(alternative 2: It is the use of language that indicates the presence of a mind. Before young infants could speak, they would not have mind and thus they are not really people.)
Who was Phineas Gage and what is his significance in the debate about the brain and behaviour?
A railroad construction foreman with an iron bar driven through his head.
A very early case to show personality change due to prefrontal cortex damage.
Showing that brain damage has a massive impact in one’s behaviour and brain function is important for how the mind work.
What is the concept of Reductionism?
the concept that psychological functioning and behaviour can be fully explained by the workings of the nervous system.
According to Marr, what are the 3 levels a complex system can be understood at? Explain what each of those levels means.
Computational theory: what is the goal of the computation, why is it appropriate, and what is the logic of the strategy to solve it?
Representation an algorithm: how can this computational theory be implemented? In particular, what is the representation for the input and output, and what is the algorithm for the transformation?
Hardware implementation: how can the representation and algorithm be realised physically?
