Philosophy Midterm
What does Lycan say about our "hardware"?
It's not that important: human is just another machine that gets stuff done.
According to Searle, what is consciousness not?
Knowledge, attention, self-consciousness
What is epiphenomenalism? How does it differ from dualism?
Mind and brain do not interact how we thought. Mental events take place as a phenomena outside the rest of the person. Epiphenomenalism believe that physical events can cause mental events but mental events can never cause physical ones.
Which neurotransmitter in the brain is associated with wellbeing and calmness?
Serotonin
What is it that Mary does not know about the color red?
She doesn't actually experience red, and therefore does not know the color red.
Can you identify any serious weakness in Descartes' theory?
"clear and distinct idea" is a pretty weak argument
Which important brain chemical is a kind of "love fuel" during the early stages of romance?
Dopamine
Make a list of the vital characteristics of human minds according to Lycan? (p. 229)
-Lack of meaning -Emotions (love) -Mate -Consciousness -Free will
Can you list 8 core features of consciousness?
-Subjectivity- consciousness is hidden -Unity- Everything is integrated -Intentionality- Language/aboutness -Gestalt- whole figure -Aspect of familiarity- knowing what a house and figure is -Mood -Boundary Conditions- Internal compass (i.e. knowing what month it is)
Briefly describe the four main theories in the philosophy of mind (substance dualism, functionalism, property dualism, biological naturalism). Match a philosopher with a theory.
-Substance Dualist (Descartes): There's two substances: mind (non-physical) and body (psycho-physical). -Biological Naturalist (Searle): Consciousness as a natural phenomena. Mind is biological. Computers will never have consciousness, no qualia or experience because we have semantics and syntax and computers only have syntax (computation/use of symbols). -Property Dualism (Chalmers): Consciousness is a fundamental property that can't be explained more simple. -Biological Naturalism (Foreman): Love can be explained -Functionalism (Lycan): Don't care about hardware but care about software. They care about the actual effect. (i.e. human and calculator coming up with the same answer)
What two types laws will a complete theory of consciousness embrace? (p. 237)
1. Physical Laws: Behavior of physical systems from the infinitesimal to the cosmological 2. Psychophysical Laws: Some of the systems are associated with conscious experience.
Philosophers and AI theorists have asked 3 fundamental questions about computers. The first two are "empirical". Identify these three questions. (Empirical or conceptual)
1. Will a computer ever be able to do something that intelligent humans can do? 2. Do we have any reason to think that it does something intelligent in the same way humans do something intelligent? 3. Given that there was an advanced computer that fulfilled A and B, would the computer have traits that are characteristic of human minds?
What percentage of mammals form monogamous bonds?
3%
What is an emergent property? How is it connected to holism?
A system feature, a property of the whole and not necessarily a property of each individual part, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts
What is the mind and body problem?
Are the mind and body connected or separate? (metaphysical problem: you cannot locate your mind)
What is Lycan's position on freedom?
Argues against free will because ultimately we're programmed by the government, society, and genes.
If I have a Capgras syndrome, what is it that I cannot recognize?
Aspect of familiarity, you don't recognize your own family, think they are duplicates/imposters
What is a category mistake?
An error that is false in principle; Descartes' mistake is to think that the mind is its own entity.
How is attention distinct from consciousness?
Attention is related to center and periphery
Who is Frank Johnson?
Australian philosopher, world leading expert on the brain processes responsible for color vision.
Historically, why was science not able to accommodate the study of consciousness?
Because, by its nature, science is objective and consciousness is subjective.
What is dualism? (Cartesian dualism = substance dualism)
Belief that there are two fundamentally different "stuff", mental and physical in the universe; Mind and body are completely separate (distinct)
What is Descartes' basic theory of the mind?
Believed that the mind and body are distinct substances that makes choices and decisions
Identify one basic way that Searle differs from Chalmers?
Chalmers think that consciousness has an exotic property.
Searle empathetically says that "from the fact that we do not know how it occurs, it does not follow that we do not know that it occurs. What is Searle referring to?
Consciousness
What is the point about Searle's analogy between water/molecules and thoughts about grandmothers/neurons?
Consciousness is a system feature, just like the liquidity of water. Not just one molecule is wet but water as a whole just like not one neuron is conscious but as a whole we are conscious
Oxytocin inhibits which stress hormone?
Cortisol
Which brain chemical is known as the "feel good" chemical?
Dopamine
How does Descartes prove the mind is indivisible?
Descartes can't perceive himself as having any other parts; The mind cannot be physically divided into parts; Nothing can be taken away from the mind like how a foot could be amputated from a body.
What is the Official Doctrine?
Descartes' view that the mind and body are two separate things harnessed together until death. The body is in space and public. Mind is not in space and private.
What term did Joseph Levine coin?
Explanatory gap: physical processes and consciousness.
What kind of property is consciousness, according to Chalmers?
Fundamental; Needs a new fundamental property with physical and psychological laws.
What does descartes mean when he says, "God is no deceiver"?
God is not trying to trick us; Reason why he can use "clear and distinct idea"
Is Chalmers a reductionist or mysterian?
He is neither he believes the truth lies between both theories.
What does Descartes mean by "clear and distinct" ideas?
He is only a thinking and unextended thing. The body is extended and unthinking but you cannot exist without the body.
What techniques does Descartes employ in order to establish certainty about his conclusion that he is a "thinking thing"?
He knows certainly that he exists and apprehends one thing apart from the other; He has a clear and distinct idea.
What is the Dogma of the Ghost in the Machine?
Highlights the perceived absurdity of dualist systems like Descartes' where mental activity carries on in parallel to physical action, but where their means of interaction are unknown or, at best, speculative. Poking fun at dualists.
What is the basic problem with the concept of a non-physical mind?
How can there be a relationship between something physical and nonphysical?; If the mind is nonphysical, how do we know it exists?; How is something non-physical attached to a specific body? (How is your mind your own?)
What moral problems do we face with computers? (hint: labor-saving devices)
If we adopt views of robots having consciousness; Robot rights
What is the basic term Lycan uses to define an intelligent creature? (Hint: I-S)
Information Sensitive
What does Lycan say about personhood?
It is difficult to draw the line of personhood once we develop our complex, flawless human simulators. Consciousness determines personhood.
Conscious processes are caused by ________ process?
Neurological
According to Lycan, does a computer have judgement? Why or why not?
No, because it has no goals and purpose of its own.
Describe "Harry" and "Henrietta". What is the key difference, if any, between the two?
Origin is the difference -Harry: robot- fully programmed, no parents, different chemical composition of anatomy -Henrietta: plasticity (ability to adapt), human born
Which brain chemical helps couples stay attached?
Oxytocin
Which brain chemical helps couples stay in love over the long run?
Oxytocin
A study at UC Santa Barbara of married couples (20+ years) showed increases in which 3 chemicals?
Oxytocin, Vasopressin, Serotonin
What does Descartes say about pain?
Pain comes from the outside by proposing that pain was actually an internal mechanical process; Pain is phenomenological
According to Searle, the study of consciousness has made fundamental mistakes. Name at least one of those errors.
Saying that there are two distinctly different substances- mental/physical is wrong- he says everything is biological
What is interactionism?
Philosophy of how the mental and physical interact, why we do and the outcomes of it; Belief that the mind and body are connected and the effect one another; Physical events cause mental events and vice versa
Chalmers claims that consciousness is a different sort of problem than most physical/scientific theories. Why?
Physical theories are best suited to explaining why systems have a certain physical structure and how they perform various functions. Scientific problems have to explain life. Consciousness is different sort of problem entirely because it goes beyond scientific explanation and function.
How does substance dualism differ from physicalism?
Physicalism: There's no separate mental and physical things in the universe; everything is physical. Physicalism=one thing. Substance dualism=two things
Which synonym for robot is misleading?
Puppets, because they are unpredictable.
Which feature of consciousness is known as "something is is like" (raw feel) to be in a certain conscious state?
Qualia
What does Lycan mean by the claim that intelligence is a kind of "flexibility"?
Responsiveness to contingencies/ informative system.
The question of how physical processes in the brain give rise to subjective experience is known as what?
Subjective aspect: when you're reading a book, you're conscious of the page, directly experiencing the images and words as part of your private, mental life. At the same time, you may be feeling some emotions and forming some thoughts. Together, the experience makes up consciousness: the subjective, inner life of the mind. Objective mechanism of cognitive system.
What is the distinction between syntax and semantics? What does Searle conclude from this?
Syntax is grammar, rules, symbols, computations while semantics is the meaning behind the symbols or words, what they represent; From this Searle concludes our brains aren't just computers because we have semantics and computers do not.
What does "irreducible" mean?
That there's no way it can be explained in a more simplistic way. He proposes that consciousness be considered a fundamental feature, irreducible to anything more basic.
What are the neural correlates of consciousness?
The brain processes more directly associated with conscious experience.
What do mysterians believe about consciousness?
The hard problem can never be solved because of human cognitive limitations; the explanatory gap can never be filled.
What is identity theory? Can you explain it with an example or illustration?
The identity theory claims that each mental event could be identified with a very specific, pure physical event. (i.e. wanting to eat dinner is neurons 87 and 163 being fired); All thoughts have a physical origin.
What do "reductionist" (scientific accounts) theories about consciousness claim?
The tools of neuroscience cannot provide a full account of conscious experience, although they have much to offer. Consciousness can be explained by standard property of neurological science and psychology.
According to Chalmers , what are the common traits among "easy problems"? (pg. 235)
They all concern how cognitive or behavioral function is performed. Consequently, we have every reason to expect the continued work in cognitive psychology and neuroscience will solve them. [The "easy problems" include: How can human subject discriminate sensory stimuli and react to them appropriately? How does the brain integrate information from many different sources and use the information to control behavior? How is it that subjects can verbalize their internal state? etc...]
How does Descartes know his mind and body are distinct?
They are distinct, separate substances with very different essential features. The mind is essentially thinking, non-spatial, and can initiate free choice. Body is extended in space, non-thinking and governed by the laws of motion.
What happens to mice when they get injected with genes for Oxytocin?
They behave like Prairie Voles and form relationships
What is unique about Prairie Voles?
They form monogamous relationships.
In what basic ways are computers limited?
They're no more than what they're programmed and fed information.
True or false? Searle claims that consciousness is ultimately a biological phenomenon.
True
Which feature of consciousness is associated with the "binding problem"?
Unity
What does Chalmers say about the importance of information? (p. 238)
Wherever there's information processing, there's consciousness. Information is fundamental to the physics of the universe. It underlies the relation between physical processes and experience. Wherever we find conscious experience, it exists as one aspect of an information state, the other aspect of which is embedded in a physical process in the brain.
Does Lycan think computers have "qualia"?
Yes
Does Lycan think digital computers are intelligent?
Yes, to some extent but they don't have judgement.