Philosophy Exam 2

Understand Searle's Chinese Room thought experiment

showing that a person or machine in the room with a detailed rule book, could successfully imitate speaking and understanding Chinese. But, no computer or thing reading syntax can fully understand a language.

What might be the pragmatist's approach to the philosopher's free will debate?

A pragmatist's approach could be that living a human life and being self aware is to feel free. We have no choice but to believe much of life is up to us

Linear Time:

Moving with time, efficiency is ideal, hard work = success. Clock time, think business planners and class schedules.

One nuclear options by Hume

Nuclear option 1: There is no self. Hume never observed or directly experienced it so perhaps there isn't a self. Buddhism says it's all an illusion, and that there are no continuous substances.

One nuclear options by Heraclitus.

Nuclear option 2: I have a self, but it's always changing. It's not the same person over the course of my life. I am in constant flux. Expressed by Heraclitus.

Numerical identity:

Two objects are numerically identical if and only if they are one and the same.

What is the soul theory of identity?

To be the same person, you must have the same soul. You can't just put your thoughts into a machine and be the same person. Souls are not identical to thoughts, they have thoughts.

What are the four basic steps in the libertarian approach to free will?

1. Distinguish event-causeation from agent-causation 2. Deny that agent causation can be reduced to physical causation 3. Acknowledge science may be right about matter being all there is, and our minds have totally physical origins. 4. Point out the uniqueness of "agent causation" for solving the determinism/interdeterminism conundrum. We can stop indefinite casual regression or random events with agent causation. We don't have to choose between infinite casual chains or random events.

What are the two options/limitations Martin Benjamin suggests might be true regarding our attempts to solve the free will debate?

1. We currently lack the understanding to solve the problem 2. We may never have the capacity to understand the problem.

Understand Gilbert Ryle's notion of a "category mistake"

A category mistake is when a person talks about something as though it's a different type of thing than the thing it is.

Why might the principle of Occam's razor lead one to cast doubt on the soul theory of identity?

Because Occam's razor says that having a soul doesn't do anything in helping us understand what makes someone who they are. How does it add to a description of you, beyond what's already there in your body, mind, thoughts, and consciousness.

What Eastern tradition also seems to teach that the self is an illusion?

Buddhism

What is the objection to identity theory sometimes referred to as carbon chauvinism?

Carbon chauvinist is saying that if our minds are just material systems obeying natural laws then it's possible that the brains programming could be instantiated in some other kind of system, such as a silicone based one. States the mind is the brain.

How did Clarence Darrow make use of the doctrine of Determinism?

He used it in a murder trial to say that although he murdered someone, he had no real control over his life because it was predetermined.

What analogy to the physical world does Raymond Smullyan make in his dialogue, "Is God a Taoist?", to argue for free will?

He uses the analogy of god giving free will to man. He says that free will is just there, and is a very essence of consciousness.

What leads David Hume to doubt the existence of a self?

He disputes that we can never be sure we have a self. No matter how well we know our experiences, we can't know beyond our temporary sensations and feelings

Be able to explain Descartes' inconceivability and indivisibility arguments against the mind being identical to the body, and the objections we considered in the recorded lecture.

His argument is that an attribute is essential is its inconceivable that the thing exists without it. It is conceivable for me to exist and not have a body. So, my body is not essential. But it is inconceivable for me to exist without a mind, so my mind is essential.

What are the two horns of the free will/determinism dilemma?

I either have no free will, or my free will consists of uncaused, random decisions.

What are some of the virtues of the identity theory?

Identity theory proposes that mental states, such as beliefs, desires, and emotions, are identical to specific neurological states in the brain.

What do philosophers mean by the "intentionality" of mental states, and which theories of mind seem especially lacking in accounting for it?

It has to explain how it's possible for us to think about things. I could be functionally equivalent to a speaker of some other language but not understand a word of it. Which is the equivalent to missing the intentionality part of thoughts.

What is the emergent materialism theory of the mind

It means that mental properties are emergent properties that arise out of sufficiently complex physical properties, but are not reducible to those properties.

What was the standard version of the original Turing test

It was an imitation game, where the "player" would ask the computer questions to try and determine if the computer is a machine or if it's human.

What makes the Malagasy experience of time different from all the others we discussed?

It's different because it states that the future is unknowable. The past is known, but situations can trigger future events. The bus only leaves when it is full. We vaguely understand the present, don't know the future, and can be sure of the past. All events rely on what's happening now.

How is giving primacy to 1st-person experience supposed to get around the free will/determinism problem?

It's supposed to say that every day all of us experience ourselves making decisions. Only if we start looking as the outsider looking in (3rd person pov), do we start to question if we have free will. But we could treat lived conscious experience as a bedrock.

What is Leibniz's King of China Thought experiment supposed to show?

It's supposed to show that a person's continuity of self isn't just dependent on their memories and consciousness. It also depends on their individual substance or soul.

What is Locke's tale of the Princess and the Cobbler supposed to show?

It's supposed to show that your identity isn't just with your body. You could have a different physical body but have the same identity/personality.

How does John Hick attempt to refute Determinism?

John Hick states that if determinism is true, no one believes anything because of an actual good reason to believe it, and if no one believes things because of a good reason then no beliefs are rational. Therefore, no beliefs are rational, including the belief that determinism is true.

What was LePlace's Superbeing, and how was it used in the Free Will lecture?

LePlaces superbeing is that the future is in principle knowable, even if we never develop the technology or power to make successful predictions. It was used in the lecture to say that we can predict the future just like determinism.

What is the doctrine of multiple realizability?

Mental types and physical types are correlated one-many not one-one.

Multi-Active Time:

Schedules and punctuality is less important. Our human relations and business are what matters more than being on time. Time is molded around our preferences and happiness, human interaction, the time on the clock doesn't matter. Sean in Arab and Latin cultures.

Essential properties:

Properties a thing cannot lose without ceasing to be the same thing or ceasing to exist. (ex. Your whole body, consciousness, memory)

What is property dualism

Property dualism is that mental states have both physical and nonphysical properties. But the nonphysical properties are their own primitive kind of property.

What is functionalism?

Says that mental states are functional states. Minds are like computer programs.

Accidental Properties:

properties are a thing you can lose without ceasing to be the same thing or ceasing to exist (ex. Your arm, hair, eyesight)

What is panpsychism as a theory of the mind, and what is one of its possible virtues?

States that not every physical thing has consciousness but every physical thing, down to a subatomic level has mental properties.

What view of the mind and body did the lecture claim the Bible actually promotes?

The bible is non-dualistic, soul-body unity.

What was the "Total Turing Test"?

The computer being tested would have to be able to do everything a human can do. Walking, eating, dancing, etc.

What is the doctrine of hard determinism?

The doctrine of hard determinism is that due to strict casual determinism, there are no free actions. Free will is an illusion.

What is the double aspect theory of mental states, and what makes it different from all the other theories we considered?

The double aspect theory is saying that mental and physical properties are two different aspects of a single underlying substance that is neither physical or mental.

Cyclic Time:

Time will always come back around. Instead of tackling issues in a sequential order, it's more productive to circle back to them later when you're ready. Seen in some eastern/asian cultures

Fatalism:

all events are predetermined and therefore they're inevitable, whereas casual determinism states that there is a prior chain of events going all the way back to the beginning of the universe that cannot be broken. It's the belief that everything that happens on earth had a cause.

causal determinism

casual determinism says all events are caused by prior events, including your own actions.

Qualitative identity:

two objects are qualitatively identical if and only if they share the same properties.