IB HL Philosophy - Philosophy Core (Being Human)

hard determinism

reality is determined, so we have no free will

Criticism of Jackson's knowledge argument

relies on a posteriori knowledge, and our senses can always deceive us

Epiphenomenalism (alternaive to dualism)

The notion that mental properties do not cause anything, but merely accompany physical processes. They are the effects of what the brain does but not the causes. The mental event is caused by the brain and cannot initiate action.

indeterminism

The belief that there are multiple possible futures

Emergentism

The contention that mental processes emerge from brain processes. Everything is made up of matter but matter can have different kinds of properties, which can be mental or physical. Proponents of this include J.S. Mill and Samuel Alexander.

determinism

effect always follows from cause, and there could have been no different picture of events. Thus, this is the belief that there is only one possible future. This may be due to the laws of physics or a God.

compatibalism

free will is compatible with determinism

incompatibalism

free will is incompatible with determinism

Van Inwagen on hard determinism

'1. Free actions are events which are 'up to me' 2. Any events which are only a consequence of events which are not 'up to me,' are not 'up to me'. 3. Determinism à Every event at (t) is only a necessary consequence of events at (t - x), (where (t) is any point in time and (t - x) is any previous point in time). 4. The events 1 million years before my birth were not 'up to me.' 5. Determinism = free actions are impossible'

John Calvin on soft determinism/compatibilism

'Free will does not enable any man to perform good works, unless he is assisted by grace'

Sartre on libertarianism

'If, however, it is true that existence is prior to essence, man is responsible for what he is' 'man is condemned to be free'

Nietzsche on hard determinism

'The causa sui is the best self-contradiction'

John Hick on libertarianism

'Thus, whilst a free action arises out of the agent's character it does not arise in a fully determined and predictable way'

David Hume on soft determinism/compatibilism

'liberty is the power of acting or not acting, according to the determination of the will'

Hobbes' Materialism (against dualism)

'that which is immaterial is nowhere and consequently nothing'

Reasons to think a machine could be conscious

-A machine can have the potential to pass the Turning Test e.g Eugene Goostman -Functionalists would argue that the denial of rights simply because one is not made of the right material is unjustified discrimination, akin to slavery -Humans are also made by humans -Naturalistic fallacy - just because something its natural does not mean its right and vice versa e.g. cancer drugs are unnatural. This was argued by David Hume. -We have never seen our own brains, so how can we make assumptions about it?

interaction problem

-Descartes makes a point that the mind and the body are separate and distinct, but this leaves us with the question of how they are able to interact -Descartes argues that it is the pineal gland in the brain that causes this, but there is no plausible evidence to back this up

Reasons to think a machine could not be conscious

-A machine made by humans could never be conscious or have free will, as it can only act on how it is programmed rather than act accordingly to its environment -A robot lacks sentience, consciousness, etc. because it is merely a programmed mechanism -Searle's Chinese Room provides a criticism of the Turning test. Functioning as if intelligent or conscious is not the same as being conscious -If physicalsim is true, biological processes are necessary for consciousness -Thomas Nagel, as machines cannot experience the world in q unique personal way

Chalmers' Zombie Argument

-Argument for dualism -States that there could be an atom for atom replica of ourselves, but that person would still not contain our identity -As we can imagine a replica of ourselves without our identity, it shows that consciousness does not arise from physical processes -However, the fact we can imagine our body without a mind goes against Descartes' principle that the body is independent of the mind

The case of Leopold and Loeb

-Both boys committed a crime that would result in the death penalty -Darrow successfully argued for their sentence to be demoted to life imprisonment (from execution) by saying that they were the product of their upbringing, and not fully responsible for their actions

Reasons for being a determinist

-Causal closure of physics (principle of sufficient reason) - every event has a sufficient casual explanation (even if we don't know the cause, we don't allow that something 'just happened'. This is linked to the principle of sufficient reason -This gives rise to causal necessity - given the total set of conditions under which this cause occurs, only one effect is possible -Theological determinism - we are following God's plan - Calvin's doctrine of predestination -Internal causation e.g genetics

Criticisms of Cartesian dualism

-Descartes is imply pre-supposing that the mind and body are different things -Cartesian doubt is personal to Descartes and lacks certainty -Masked Man Fallacy shows that Leibniz' Law is unreliable when it comes to first person psychological predication -Hobbes argues that the mind having no special location is nonsensical -Interaction problem, especially as Descartes states that 'I am not lodged in my body like a pilot in a ship'

philosophers who agree with soft determinism/compatibilism

-Thomas Hobbes -David Hume -John Calvin -Kant -Frankfurt

Arguments for Cartesian Dualism

-Descartes' differences between the mind and the body and Leibniz' law -We identify with out minds rather than our bodies (separability argument in Meditation 6) -Conceivability arguments with Chalmers' Zombies and Cartesian ghosts (bodies without minds and minds without bodies) -Jackson's knowledge argument (Mary)

Criticisms of soft behaviourism

-Does not account for behaviour without a menta state e.g. acting or reflex actions -If we take the notion of potential behaviour, the problem of other minds becomes even more prevalent, as we cannot read what someone's potential actions are -Examples where belief appears to cause behaviour e.g. one prays because they believe in God

Arguments for physicalism

-Does not raise interaction problem -The mind has a concrete place we can recognise, complying with Hobbs' stance that the mind not having a specific place in the body is nonsensical

Frankfurt on soft determinism

-Frankfurt defines freedom of action as 'freedom to do what one wants to do'. ---Therefore the wanton is not free because they are acting according to only first-order desires and not second-order desires, which are ultimately what motivate truly free action. -This is a modification of Hume's definition of free will, which only counts towards first-order desires

Counter-arguments to Searle's Chinese Room

-Functionalists counter Searle by begging the question 'the room understands' - we may be picking on one part of the brain instead of looking at it from a holistic perspective -If someone is able to pass the Turning test with a set of rules, we may actually end up understanding Chinese -Consciousness can come in different degrees. Human consciousness is not the only consciousness Idea of a cybernetic implant. This could augment our natural brain function. Other kind of consciousness could be possible, not just biological wetware

Theories of personal identity

-Heraclitus - no personal identity over time. This was introduced with the metaphor of a river and new water replenishing it as it flows past -Materialist view: Personal identity is physical, taking a materialistic perspective, believing that bodily continuity or physicality is what makes a person a person with the view that even mental things are caused by some kind of physical occurrence -Idealist approach with the belief that mental continuity is the sole factor in establishing personal identity holding that physical things are just reflections of the mind -John Locke is a proponent of a version of the idealist approach, stating that we our linked to our past selves by memory, and our mental life constitutes personal identity

Descartes' first argument from doubt

-I don't doubt that I exist -I do doubt that my body exists -Therefore, I am not the same with my body

How did Descartes develop his dualism?

-In his Meditations, he proved the existence of the self as purely a thinking thing (res cogitans) and progressed to discuss the existence of extended objects (res extensa) -The rest of his argument tries to prove how the mind is different to the body

Denett on free will

-Is a physicalist, yet states that we have free will -Although we are biological machines, our free will is an emergent property of our biology

Kant on soft determinism

-Kant viewed causality as a 'category' of the understanding applicable only to the phenomenal realm. By contrast, freedom belongs to the noumenal realm and is a presupposition of the categorical imperative.

philosophers who agree with hard determinism

-Laplace -Van Inwagen -Nietzsche

Advantages of Hempel's hard behaviourism

-No problem of other minds, as raised with Cartesian dualism (solipsism) - Other problems raised with theories such as Cartesian dualism are also accounted for such as the interaction problem. This is because behaviourism suggests that mental states and behaviour are ultimately looking at the same thing, so the interaction problem ceases to exist -scientific as it suggests that the mind is simply the brain, so no conflict over what substance the mind is -Monist theory and complies with Occham's Razor

neo-Lockean responses to the objections of Locke's personal identity

-Paul Grice responded to the criticism of the brave officer. He states that a person's life can be conceived as consisting of a series of momentary "person stages." In order for the old general to be identical with the small boy, it is not required that the general remember experiences and actions of the boy but only that the old-general person-stage be linked to the small-boy person-stage by a series of person-stages -Sydney Shoemaker: No circularity will be involved if one uses the notion of quasi-memory in place of the notion of memory in giving one's account of the psychological continuity that constitutes personal identity. Of course, a psychological-continuity theory based on quasi-memory will be satisfactory only if it contains provisions that determine whether a case of quasi-remembering is a case of genuine remembering.

Arguments against physicalism

-Potentially too reductive -Suggests that everything about the mind can be explained through neuroscience, but we know so little about neuroscience, so this assertion cannot be validated -Science is dynamic and changeable e.g. theory of Thomas Kuhn's Paradigm Shift

Counter-arguments to hard behaviourism

-Problem of other minds still prevails, as it is easy to misread one's behaviour or be deceived e.g. facial expressions -Question of how mental states can occur without behavioural consequences and vice versa e.g. acting, reflex actions, and thinking of things with no external consequences -If mental states are the causes of our actions and vice versa, it leaves the question of how they can be the same as our actions?

Criticisms of 'I am free because the cause is within me'

-Problem of reflex actions, as we are free but the cause is not within ourselves

Masked Man Fallacy (criticism of Descartes)

-Problem of the 'Masked Man Fallacy' - where two things do not appear to be the same, but indeed are -e.g. Clark Kent and superman -Thus, Descartes may be able to prove an epistemological difference between the mind and the body, but not an ontological one

philosophers who agree with libertarianism

-Sartre -John Hick

Does Ryle's soft behaviourism solve any of the criticisms of hard behaviourism?

-Solves the problem of where behavioural consequences may not be clear. For example thinking of cooking does not mean that we will cook, but it gives us the potential to do so - In these cases of potential actions, it also helps us to see how mental states can be the same as our actions (although this ultimately does not work in the cases of actions that are not potential)

Criticism of Hume's soft determinism

-Suggests that people such as addicts are free, as they are essentially acting according to the determination of their will

Criticisms of Locke's personal identity

-Thomas Reid - Brave officer and the young boy. The old man does not remember being the young boy but the brave officer does. This creates a logical contradiction as A=B, B=C, but C does not equal A -Bishop Butler - Locke's theory is circular as it presupposes personal identity in memory -Concepts of dementia and amnesia

property dualism

-different to Cartesian 'substance' dualism -States that even though the mind is not a physical, material object and that mental events are not identical with neurological events, the mind still depends upon the body for its existence -This form of dualism is supported by Chalmers' zombie argument

criticisms of libertariansim

-does not take into account causality of the universe, thus losing its coherence

four broad approaches to determinism

-hard determinism -hard indeterminism -soft determinism -libertarianism

advantages of epiphenomenalism

-mental causation is denied. It also does not violate the Law of conservation of energy like Descartes' theory of mental causation -it makes mental phenomena irreducible -consistent with neuroscience and no problem of causal over-determination

Problem with Descartes' first argument from doubt

-shows that Leibniz' law is unreliable when it comes to first person predication -using existence as a predicate is misleading -masked man fallacy -not seen from an objective lens

criticisms of epiphenomenalism

-undermines conscious free will -mental events can cause other mental events e.g. a feeling of hunger may give someone the urge to cook -problem of other minds -does not give an explanation for what the mind actually is, as it is not physical or another substance -problem of how mental phenomena are caused by the brain still remains (interaction problem)

Overall behaviourist view

All talk about mental states is just talk about behaviour

Hempel's hard behaviourism

All talk about the mind is talk about our actual behaviour

Ryle's soft behaviourism

All talk about the mind is talk about our actual or potential behaviour

Descartes' assumptions (criticism of Descartes)

Descartes suggests that the mind is non-extended, but if the mind is simply the brain, it is an extended material object

Cartesian dualism

Descartes's view that all of reality could ultimately be reduced to mind and matter. He states that our mind is what makes us who we are, and we can exist without our body, because the mind and body are separate substances.

Ted Honderich on free will and morality

Determinism is the hypothesis that 'all our choices, decisions, intentions, other mental events, and our actions are no more than effects of other equally necessitated events'

Kant's criticism of hard determinism

Kant criticises hard determinism, on the basis that is necessitates a lack of reason behind acts of will. Rationality formulates the basis of Kantian understanding, thus he argues whilst pure reason is determined by external factors, practical reason is not determined and allows us to make decisions freedom

Laplace demon

Laplace argues for determinism by creating a hypothetical demon, that can see 'the future as well as the past would be present to its eyes'

Robert Kane on free will and morality (libertarian)

Robert Kane, as a libertarian, argues that moral responsibility requires the possibility of alternative futures

Proponent of physicalism

Rudolf Carnap

Jackson's Knowledge Argument

States that if a character named Mary were confined to a black and white room for her entire life, and then let outside, she would experience the colour blue and learn that the sky is blue. This shows that her knowledge was incomplete before and she is learning, rather than this being a physical process.

David Hume response to interaction problem

Suggests that interaction is always mysterious and simply a habit of the mind that cannot be broken down. Thus, it is not a problem for Descartes.

physicalism

The theory that human beings can be explained completely and adequately in terms of their physical or material components. The mind arises from nothing but physical reactions.

metaphysical freedom

This is the freedom to choose the different options that are available to us, but confined by the laws of physics

Leibniz' Law

Two objects cannot be the same if they have any differences at all. This supports Descartes' dualism

what does physicalism say about psychology?

psychology and neurology are the same, just with different perspectives

Descartes' differences between the mind and the body

the mind is unextended, rational, eternal and indivisible, whereas the body is extended, non-rational, temporary and indivisible. He also believes that the mind exists with absolute certainty and can exist without the body, whereas the body is open to doubt. The body is also changing when the mind is not.

dualism

the presumption that mind and body are two distinct entities that interact

Sartre on free will and morality (libertarian)

we have complete freedom, so we also have complete responsibility, even if we were 'forced' to do something