Introduction to Philosophy. Quiz Two Study Guide: 1861:0005 Dr. Katarina Perović

Necessary and sufficient conditions.

"Necessary" is one measure needed to obtain an effect. "Sufficient" is the only measure needed to obtain an effect.

Eliminative Materialism

"The thesis that increasing knowledge of neurology eventually will allow us to give up our 'folk psychological' terminology of mental states" (Introduction to Phil., S.H.M. p. 663). Materialism which eliminates outdated thinking. Not 1 to 1.

argument for substance dualism

1. Different because, the mind is not accessible in space or time, and the body is visible in space. 2. We have a clear and distinct idea that one can exist without the other.

Argument against physical criteria as support of personal identity.

1. How much of the body does one need? Just the brain, maybe? But how much of the brain? (Enough to sustain life, maybe?) 2. Radical amnesia. 3.vegetative state. 4. duplication (1/2 and 1/2 example--which is the real person?) 5. Are the embryo and elderly self the same identity despite such physical change? 6. Which artificial/bionic parts can be used and which body parts can they replace?

Argument against Identity Theory

1. I'm aware of the sensation but not the firing. 2. If I could travel the brain I could never bump into a thought.

Argument against eliminative materialism

1. My thoughts and pains can't be outdated. And the language I use to describe them is convenient. 2. They are making mountains out of molehills. The term elimination is too extreme.

Argument against Gilbert Ryle's Behaviorism.

1. Pain is not a behavior. Sometimes we don't cry out when we're hurt. We can suppress it. 2. Introspection gives us immediate assessment of our state. We don't have to observe self-behavior.

Hume's Fork

1. Relations of ideas / A priori. 2. Relations of matters of fact.

Argument against dualism.

1. The interaction problem. How do the two interact? Descartes argues, via homunculi--little tiny animal spirits in the pineal gland? 2. The category mistake--mistaking one thing for another, like thinking university is a building but it's an institution. Gilbert Ryle. 3. How can I infer that others have minds?

Argument against psychological criteria of personal identity.

1. What is someone has many souls? 2. Duplication problem. What if someone has their brain hemispheres split, which then are they identical to? What half is the personal self? 3. Circularity objection. We are assuming that one's memories are of the same as their personal past experience. (Objection to objection--quasi memory...remembering others' past memories.)

Numeric

1=1. A numerically exact thing.

A priori

As something "appears to the mind, independent of all observation" (Introduction to Phil., S.H.M. p. 242). Also called "Relation of Ideas" which is logic, as one would use in mathematics. David Hume.

Gilbert Ryle

Behaviorism proponent

Behaviorism

Behaviors are outputs arising from inputs. There are no minds, merely there are dispositions/tendencies to behave. Gilbert Ryle.

John Perry's character Gretchen Weirob is a proponent of.

Bodily criterion for personal identity.

Argument against functionalism

Chinese room thought experiment. John Searle,

Folk psychology

Common sense explaining behavior and mental states.

Psychological criteria of personal identity

Continuity of traits such as beliefs, desires, and memories.

John Perry

Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality.

Multiple Realizability

Different things can support the same mental things in different creatures. Pain might come from one region in one, and another in another. Even in one brain, if one part of the brain is damaged (stroke etc) because of plasticity the other parts can preform the task.

Paul Churchland

Eliminative materialism proponent

What thesis does folk psychology relate to?

Eliminative materialism.

Realizers.

Fillers/makers of roles/functions.

Multiple realizability is related to what theory?

Functionalism

Braddon-Mitchell

Functionalism and commitment to multiple realizability thesis proponent

Brings about in us the idea of causation

Habits of the mind. Correlating cause and effect aka associations from contiguity. Hume.

David Hume's argument against cause and effect

Hume's fork. He says causation doesn't belong to the two-pronged fork--half labeled, "A Priori," and the other "Matters of Fact." 1. A priori: reasoning/ aka knowledge obtained through deduction. Example: the reasoning that a pool ball hit will roll. Hume argues that we can't have that thought through reason, that we are going off experience of seeing it roll. Just like nobody could know that fire will make gunpowder explode (Introduction to Phil., S.H.M. p. 242). 2. Matters of Fact is knowledge obtained through induction. Example: the impression that a pool ball hit will roll. Hume argues that, that this is all we have and it is not enough to prove causation. How can you argue that the white ball will move the six ball? Because last time I predicted that it did. This argument is an example of begging the question.

J. J. Smart

Identity Theory proponent

Argues against identity theory

Jerome Shaffer

Matters of Fact

Knowledge obtained through experience. Think Locke's sensations (sense data). David Hume.

Does David Hume believe in causation?

No

Argument for eliminative materialism

One day folk psychology will be outdated, like the belief that the earth is flat which seemed so obviously right and yet was wrong. The flat earth does not exist. Likewise the states of the mind, belief, desire, etc., do not exist.

Numeric vs. qualitative. What main debate is it related to?

Personal identity.

Two types of criteria for personal identity

Physical and psychological

The problem with personal identity

Providing necessary and sufficient conditions of consistency of persons through time.

Two characters from John Perry's Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality.

Sam Miller and Gretchen Weirob

Qualitative

Same properties.

John Perry's character Sam Miller is a proponent of.

Soul criterion for personal identity.

David Hume

Speaks on Causation

Rene Descartes

Substance dualism proponent

Impressions

That which is given to the mind through the senses. Sensations (sense data). (p.667) David Hume.

John Perry's character Gretchen wants proof of.

The soul being tied to psychology.

Functionalism

The theory that the mind is the product of a pattern of neurological firings in the brain, as in a computer, rather than a product of the matter of the brain itself. The brain is the hardware and the mind/thought is the software. (Introduction to Philosophy, pp. 351, 665).

Substance dualism

The view that human nature is composed of two things: a material body and an immaterial mind or "soul"

Identity theory

The view that mental states are identical to physical brain states. 1 to 1. Sensations are merely brain processes, and the problem is language. One day it will be said, "my C-fibers are firing," instead of "I'm hurting." Argument by Jerome Scaffer is that correlating pain/thought with brain processes is not equalling the two, so for example, pain is identified as c-fibers firing. Correlation is not identity (346).

Ideas

Thoughts derived by the mind from impressions (p. 666). Hume.

Diachronic

Through time.

John Perry's character Sam's response to Gretchen.

We can infer other have access to their psychology. Psychology is distinct from the body. Waking up we know we are ourselves. Kafka's cockroach.