Chapter Two

1
Chapter Two

• The Philosophical Approach Enduring Questions

2
The philosophy perspective

• Philosophy is the search for knowledge.
• It is the oldest discipline in cognitive science,
  tracing its origins back to the ancient Greeks.
• The branch of metaphysics examines the nature of
  reality.
• The branch of epistemology is the study of
  knowledge.

3
The mind-body problem

• Describes the seeming incompatibility between the
  physical properties of the brain and the mental
  qualities of the mind.
• The brain is material and physical and can be
  studied objectively.
• The mind consists of subjective phenomena such as
  thoughts, feelings, and beliefs.
• Is the mind physical?

4
Monism

• According to monism, the mind and the body are
  both made up of the same substance, either mental
  or physical.
• Aristotle (384322 B.C.) advocated a physical
  form of monism. He believed the mind and body
  were both physical.
• He stated that aspects of mind correspond to the
  different physical states the brain assumes.

5
Dualism

• Plato (427347 B.C.) was a dualist.
• Dualism argues that mind and body are of two
  different natures the brain is a physical
  substance and the mind is a mental substance.
• Plato thought the body resided in a world that is
  material, extended, and perishable.
• The mind, he believed, resided in an ideal world
  of forms that was immaterial, non-extended, and
  eternal.

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Types of monism

• Idealism. The mind and body both exist in a
  mental realm. There is no physical world.
• Solipsism. A form of idealism in which the
  universe exists only in ones mind.
• Physicalism. Mind and body are both physical.
  There is no nonphysical world.

7
Types of dualism

• Classical dualism. Proposed by Descartes
  (15961650). The mind controls the body through
  the pineal gland.
• Parallelism. Mind and body are isolated from each
  other and exist in parallel worlds. An unknown
  force synchronizes the two.
• Epiphenomenalism. The brain causes the mind. In
  this view, the mind has no causal influence on
  the brain.
• Interactionism. The mind and the body can
  mutually affect one another.

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Functionalism

• A mind is the result of the execution of certain
  processes or functions. These functions can give
  rise to mind irregardless of the physical
  substrate in which they are embedded.

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Determinism

• Determinism argues that all physical events are
  caused and determined by prior events.
• The behavior of a determined physical system can
  be replicated and predicted.

10
Free will

• According to free will, we autonomously choose
  our course of action.
• Human action is considered independent of
  preceding causal factors.

11
Evaluating the free will-determinism debate

• According to compatibilism human actions are
  preceded by causes but these constrain rather
  than determine our behavior.
• Incompatibilism states that we cannot be truly
  free of preceding causal events. Determinism and
  free will can therefore not both be true.

12
The knowledge acquisition problem

• How does knowledge get into our heads?
• According to nativism we are born with knowledge.
• According to empiricism knowledge is acquired
  through experience.
• The naturenurture debate argues over the
  relative contribution of genetics and experience
  to any given trait.

13
Consciousness-The ultimate mystery

• Consciousness may be defined as the subjective
  quality of experience. What it is like for us to
  see, feel, think, etc.
• The phenomenal concept of mind refers to this
  subjective aspect of mental life and may never be
  adequately explained.
• The psychological concept of mind refers to how
  the mind causes and explains behavior and is
  easier to study.

14
What is it like to be a bat?
There is something that it is like for a bat to
experience echolocation.
15
Emergent properties

• The mind may be an emergent property of the
  brain.
• Emergence occurs when the global properties of a
  system arise from the more local interaction of
  its parts.
• Water emerges from the interaction of H2O
  molecules but cannot be explained entirely by
  their individual properties or interactions.

16
Consciousness and neuroscience

• Consciousness is the emergent property of
  neuronal activity (Popper Eccles, 1981).
• Consciousness may be the product of specialized
  consciousness neurons (Crick Koch, 1995).
• Other theories postulate the existence of a
  cortico-thalamic circuit in which information is
  passed recurrently between the cortex and
  thalamus.

17
Consciousness and artificial intelligence

• Can a machine become conscious?
• According to the strong AI view, the answer is
  yes. It is a matter of building more complex,
  sophisticated machines.
• According to the weak AI view, the answer is no.
  Consciousness is either nonphysical or is so
  complex it can never be reproduced artificially.

18
The Chinese room scenario

• Can a person who follows rules to translate
  Chinese ever understand the language?

19
The multiple drafts theory of consciousness

• Dennett argues that we are simultaneously
  processing information in multiple streams.
• Consciousness therefore does not happen at any
  single place in the brain.