Mind And Machines

Front 1

What is an argument?

Back 1

An argument is a set of sentences. It consists of premises and conclusions. The
premises give us reason to believe that the conclusion(s) is/are true.

Front 2

Name two ways in which an argument can fail

Back 2

An argument can fail
a. if it contains a false premise
b. if the inference from the premises to the conclusion is invalid.

Front 3

What does monism claim?

Back 3

According to monism, there is only one kind of thing or substance.

Front 4

Define physicalism

Back 4

According to physicalism, only entities that the physical sciences study, or entities
that are composed of such entities, exist
a. Example: according to physicalism, God does not exist. He is not composed
of parts that the sciences study, such as physical, chemical or biological parts.

Front 5

Define idealism

Back 5

According to idealism, only minds exist.

Front 6

Define dualism (in general)

Back 6

According to dualism, two kinds of things or two kinds of substances exist, physical
things and minds. Both are radically independent an separate from each other and
cannot be reduced (i.e., the mental cannot be reduced to the physical and vice versa).

Front 7

What do philosophers mean when they say that “mental states are intentional”?

Back 7

Mental states are intentional means that they are about something.
a. Example: Joe’s belief that Machu Pichu is in Peru is intentional because it is
about Machu Pichu and Peru.

Front 8

What do philosophers mean when they talk about privileged access?

Back 8

We seem to have privileged access to facts about our own minds in the sense that we
can know about our own minds in a direct and unique way. We don’t seem to have
this sort of access to the minds of other people, and other people don’t seem to have
this access to our minds either.

Front 9

What is a property?

Back 9

A property is anything that can characterize an object, such as greenness, sphericity,
goodness, warmth, being divisible by 2, etc.

Front 10

What is an event?

Back 10

An event consists in an object’s losing and/or acquiring properties. In any case, the
object undergoes some kind of change.

Front 11

Explain the difference between substance dualism and property dualism in 2-3
sentences.

Back 11

Substance dualism claims that there are two kinds of objects or substances, physical
and mental.
Property dualism claims that there is only one kind of substance (e.g. physical), but
this substance can have two kinds of properties, physical and mental. Consequently,
even though we have only one substance, according to property dualism, we could
still have two kinds of events.

Front 12

Explain the argument from introspection in one paragraph

Back 12

The argument from introspection starts out by assuming that we have some kind of
privileged access to facts about our own minds, in the sense that we can know about
our own minds in a direct and unique way: we can introspect our own minds. It then
goes on to claim that when I introspect my belief state, I do not perceive any shape,
mass, or other physical properties. From these two assumptions, the argument from
introspection then moves on to conclude that my mind, which is in the belief state,
has no shape, mass, or other physical properties. The argument then makes the
assumption that if some object, say x, does not have any physical properties such as
shape, mass, etc., then this object x is non-physical. Hence, the argument from
introspection concludes, the mind is non-physical as well.

Front 13

Name two problems that Mental Causation poses for the dualist account

Back 13

a. Dualism fails to specify a mechanism, i.e. a series of intermediate steps or
stages that transform one state into another.
b. The argument from Causal Closure assumes that every physical even is
completely explained by physical causes. Since human actions are physical
events (or so the argument assumes), human actions are therefore also
completely explained by physical causes. Hence, the argument concludes,
there can be no room for non-physical causes in explanations of human
actions. Therefore, dualism is false.

Front 14

Explain the concept of epiphenomenalism

Back 14

Epiphenomenalism is a type of property dualism according to which physical events
may cause mental properties, but denies that these mental properties have any causal
powers.

Front 15

Say in one sentence what it means for a sentence to be empirically testable

Back 15

If a sentence is empirically testable, this means that there is a possible observation
that is relevant to ascertaining its truth.

Front 16

Give one example of a sentence that is empirically testable, and one that is not
empirically testable

Back 16

a. This class will take a test on Monday, Oct. 28.
b. A million angels can sit on the head of a pin.

Front 17

What does it mean for a sentence to be analytic?

Back 17

A sentence is analytic, if it is true in virtue of the meaning of the terms it contains.
Analytic sentences are hence true independently of how the world actually is.

Front 18

What does it mean for a sentence to be contradictory?

Back 18

A sentence is contradictory, it if is false in virtue of the meanings of its terms.

Front 19

Give an example for an analytic sentence

Back 19

All bachelors are unmarried

Front 20

Give an example for a contradictory sentence

Back 20

Today is Friday and today is not Friday.

Front 21

Give an example for a sentence that is neither analytic nor contradictory

Back 21

Homo sapiens first appeared in Africa

Front 22

Describe the main tenet of the (Mind-Brain) Type Identity Theory in one
sentence

Back 22

Every type of mental state is identical to a type of brain state.

Front 23

Explain in 2-3 sentences why the following question in ambiguous and which two
answers you could give to it: “How many letter are in the word Glee?”

Back 23

It depends on whether we talk about types or tokens of letters. If you mean tokens of
letter, there are four letters in the word. If you mean types of letter, however, there
are three letter in the word: ‘g’, ‘l’, and ‘e’.

Front 24

Explain the Argument from Causal Roles in 3-4 sentences

Back 24

The Argument from Causal Roles starts out by assuming that pain (to take an
example) is whatever it is that causes us to engage in certain kinds of behavior, such
as avoidance or remedy. It then moves on to assume that it is the firing of C-fibers
that causes us to engage in these kinds of behaviors. The Argument from Causal
Roles then concludes from these two premises that pain is the firing of C-fibers.

Front 25

Explain the “Too Many Minds”-Objection to Functionalism in one paragraph

Back 25

The argument starts out by assuming that according to functionalism, any system S
can realize a given mental state type as long as S plays the right causal or functional
role. It furthermore assumes that the human brain realizes all sorts of mental states.
From these two premises, the argument concludes that according to functionalism,
any system that plays the same causal roles as the human brain realizes all sorts of
mental states (just like the human brain). However, the argument continues to
assume, there are things that play the same role as the human brain but that do not
realize mental states, such as the China-mind or the Einstein-book. The argument
hence concludes that functionalism is false.

Front 26

Explain in one paragraph how the “China Mind” supports the objection under
25. to functionalism

Back 26

The "China Mind" thought experiment supposes that the entire nation of China
systematically organizes itself to operate just like a brain, with each citizen acting as a
neuron. According to functionalism, so long as the people are performing the proper
functional roles, with the proper causal relations between inputs and outputs, the
system will be a real mind, with mental states, consciousness, and so on. However,
since this is patently absurd, there must be something wrong with the thesis of
functionalism since it would allow this to be a legitimate description of a mind.

Front 27

Explain in one paragraph how the “Einstein Book Contraption” thought
experiment supports the objection to functionalism under 25.

Back 27

The Einstein Book Contraption consists of the following: A page for each neuron in
Einstein’s brain at the moment of his death; a mechanism for receiving auditory
inputs and rules for adjusting the values on each page in response to auditory inputs;
rules for reading off signals that would have gone from Einstein’s brain to his vocal
chords and a mechanism for converting these rules into auditory input. According to
functionalism, so long as the pages are performing the proper functional roles, with
the proper causal relations between inputs and outputs, the Einstein Book Contraption
will be a real mind, with mental states, consciousness, and so on. We could hence
have a conversation with the book! However, since this is patently absurd, there must
be something wrong with the thesis of functionalism since it would allow this to be a
legitimate description of a mind.

Front 28

Explain in one paragraph how the “Inverted Spectrum” supports the objection
to functionalism under 25.

Back 28

The argument starts out by assuming that Tim and Tom look at the same tomato from
the same angle etc. They are hence in functionally identical mental states, and
according to functionalism, this is sufficient to conclude that they are in the same
mental state. The argument continues to assume that the tomato looks to Tim the way
ripe tomatoes look to us; but that the tomato looks to Tom the way unripe tomatoes
look to us. We need to conclude from this that Tim and Tom are not in exactly the
same mental state. The argument ends by concluding that functionalism is false.

Front 29

Describe the Language of Thought hypothesis in one sentence

Back 29

The content of a propositional attitude is a mental sentence.

Front 30

Define syntax in 1-3 sentences

Back 30

Syntax is the study of which combinations of symbols are grammatical. We could
hence construct a new language just out of symbols such: ‘@’ and ‘$’ as the terms of
the language; and ‘^’ and ‘#’ as the predicates of the language. ‘@^’ and ‘$#’ would
be grammatical sentences in our new language; ‘^@’ and ‘#$’ however would not be
grammatical sentences in our new language.

Front 31

Define semantics in 1-3 sentences

Back 31

Semantics is the study of the meanings of linguistic terms. Example: ‘@’ refers to
Ben; ‘&’ means ‘is a quarterback’. ‘@&’ would hence mean ‘Ben is a quarterback.’

Front 32

Give 3 examples of how the symbols of our new language could be physically
realized

Back 32

The sentence type ‘@&’ can be realized by:
a. Configurations of white and black light-emitting diodes
b. Chalk marks on a blackboard
c. Crop circles

Front 33

Explain Dennett’s Objection to the Language of Thought hypothesis in one
paragraph

Back 33

The argument assumes that according to the language of thought hypothesis, for each
proposition that I believe, there is a sentence in my brain expressing it. It furthermore
assumes that I believe many different propositions; for instance, I believe that zebras
in the wild don’t wear overcoats. It then assumes that there cannot be a sentence in
my brain for each one of these many, many sentences. From these premises, the
argument concludes that the language of thought hypothesis is false.

Front 34

Define computationalism in one sentence

Back 34

Reasoning is only responsive to the syntactic features of the contents of propositional
attitudes.

Front 35

Explain in 1-3 sentences how the Chinese Room works (use the version we had in
the lecture! Only describe the setup)

Back 35

Suppose you are locked in a room and don’t know any Chinese, either written or
spoken. Yet, you have a set of rules in English that enable you to correlate one set of
formal symbols with another set of formal symbols, that is, the Chinese characters.
These rules allow you to respond, in written Chinese, to questions, also written in
Chinese, in such a way that the posers of the questions - who do understand Chinese -
are convinced that you can actually understand the Chinese conversation too, even
though you cannot.

Front 36

Describe in one paragraph two of the eliminativist’s objections to the Sentential
View of Thought

Back 36

a. Folk psychology takes the contents of propositional attitudes to be sentential.
Folk psychology attributes propositional attitudes to nonlinguistic animals
(like cats and dogs). But a non-linguistic animal cannot be in a sentential
state.
b. If there are beliefs, then there are infinite logical consequences of a given
belief (think of the belief “grass is green”). We implicitly believe either all or
none of the logical consequences of our beliefs. We don’t implicitly believe
all of the logical consequences of our beliefs—that would be too many
beliefs. But we also don’t believe implicitly none of the logical consequences
of our beliefs—that would be too few beliefs. Therefore, folk psychology has
no acceptable account of the role of the logical consequence in implicit belief.

Front 37

Explain Dennett’s “Intentional Stance” in 3-5 sentences

Back 37

According to Dennett, propositional attitude attributions are part of a successful
explanatory strategy we use all the time. Still, he believes that there aren’t really any
propositional attitudes. This leads him to the thesis of instrumentalism about
propositional attitudes. Analogy: One might think that the Yogy theory of chakras is
part of a successful health strategy, but that there aren’t really chakra points.