Summary philosophy of mind - grade 10 - 8 questions
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Philosophy of the Mind (500251B5)
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Tilburg University (UVT)
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8 Questions about the conscious mind
This summary contains all content of the first part of Philosophy of Mind. It concerns the book '8 questions about the conscious mind' by Hans Dooremalen, and each question is separately dealt with.
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PHILOSOPHY OF MIND
PART 1 – 8 QUESTIONS ABOUT THE CONSCIOUS MIND
INTRODUCTION
Mind-body problem: we are conscious being with mental life (we think, feel, wish, fear, believe,
intent, remember) but we’re also physical creatures with physical bodies and powerful brains.
Seem heavily intertwined: feel pain when body is hurt. But how do they work together?
Philosophy can be thought of in multiple ways:
Conceptual analysis: Philosophy asks: what do you mean by concept ‘X’ (e.g. mind, life)
Every day world view = manifest world view. Scientific research provides us with a scientific
world view.
Can be used to search for the relation between these world views.
Conceptual clarification: just like conceptual analysis, you ask what someone means by his or
her concepts but you go further: look at what science tells us by empirical evidence.
Science of validity: science uses concepts such as ‘causality’. We use these without asking
questions about it, but are these concepts valid / can they be applied?
Training in changing perspectives: train to have an eye for other options and partake in
debate.
Search for truth: ancient Greek sophists were not concerned with truth but with winning
arguments (like lawyers, were more in line with 4 th) Socrates argued against this: there is
an objective truth that philosophers should seek to uncover.
All or none of the above
Philosophy is not: just chatting, fact-free, not just radical skepticism nor pure relativism.
Answers aren’t easy to find, but for large parts we should be able to reach certain
conclusions.
Philosophy for psychologists because we need to ask ourselves critical questions about ethical issues,
philosophy (theory) of science, and foundational concepts (mind, intelligence, consciousness).
What is mind, a conscious mind? How does consciousness fit in the physical world and what
role does the body play in consciousness and cognition?
The hard problem: defining consciousness isn’t easy, discrepancy between our intuitions and
our scientific view of the world. People have dualist intuitions: mind and body as two entirely
different things that can exist and function in separation of each other. (causes vs. spirits)
However, they’re heavily intertwined. Feel something brain activity and also the other
way around. Modern scientists have to accept that consciousness is in some sense physical.
QUESTION 1 : WHAT IS THE CONSCIOUS MIND?
The conscious mind
Initial classification: conscious mind has conscious experiences, cognitions, and emotions.
, Conscious/phenomenal experiences are what-it-is-likeness: it is like something to be…
because it contains certain components or qualia (quale) that we experience: the
phenomenal experience of what it is like to..; qualitative aspects.
o Characterized by their qualitative feel; ‘phenomenal’ refers to how something feels
and appears to us; how we experience it.
Cognition / cognitive states means you have propositional attitudes: stances taken towards a
proposition. Cognitive states / PA’s have intentionality (they’re about something, not
intentions!). PA’s are discrete entities: changes to one PA does not necessarily change
anything about another.
Emotions have both qualitative character and intentionality: it feels like something but it’s
also directed at something.
The general mind-body problem: how does the conscious mind fit in the physical world? Can be
broken down to subproblems: how do(es) conscious experiences, cognition, and emotions fit in the
physical world?
Which can be further divided into:
How do qualia fit in the physical world?
How does intentionality fit in the physical world?
This shows both their individual fit into the physical world but also the way they fit into
the physical world when combined (emotion).
Doubting the conscious mind would in itself be a mental state, proving that the conscious mind does
indeed exist.
What’s the difference between the conscious and the unconscious mind? “the notion of an
unconscious mental state implies accessibility to consciousness.”; unconscious mental states can
become conscious under the right circumstances, e.g. memories.
i.e. cognitive states are mental states that become conscious.
Different prepositions about this problem
1. Substance-dualism: mind and body are independent of each other
2. Idealism: physical world is dependent of the mental world
3. Behaviorism: the mind is behavior
4. Reductionism / identity theory: mental states are identical to brain states
5. Eliminativism: there is no mind
6. Functionalism: mental states are realized by brain states
7. Connectionism: mental states are states in a neural network
8. Embodied, embedded, and extended mind: there’s more to mind than brain and body
Important note up front: 1-7 can be crossed out, they’re not believable theories.
QUESTION 2 : CAN THE MIND FUNCTION SEPERATELY FROM THE BRAIN?
Substance-dualism
Substance dualism (separability thesis) is the theory that mind and body are two different
substances that can also function separately. Substance is that which can exist on its own. Has
substances, properties. In SD there are two substances, Descartes gave these substances essential
properties.
, 1. Res cogitans (thinking substance): property is thinking.
2. Res extensa (extended substance): property is being extended / having extension: taking up
place in space.
Movement is the result of collisions between extended objects (as two objects cannot be in
the same space at once).
Descartes’ first method was radical doubt. Mathematics as the prototype of science, or a foundation
to build on. What is a foundation you cannot doubt? Not teachers, observations (or senses), as you
cannot fully trust anything or anyone that has deceived you before.
Q: are you awake?
Q: do you have a body?
Q: does 2 + 2 equal 4?
Concludes that there might be an evil demon who is so powerful, he is able to deceive Descartes.
Make him believe that he had a body, or that there even is a physical world. But no matter the
demon’s power, one thing is left.
This is: cogito ergo sum: I think therefore I am. Because if he doubts, he thinks, and if you think you
have to exist. He concludes he is a res cogitans, through clear and distinct perception. He says there
must be a good god, that is so good that he does not mislead him, that allows him to have these
perceptions. So, given my clear and distinct perceptions, I am also a body, therefore a res extensa.
Princess Elisabeth: “given that the soul of a human being is only a thinking substance, how
can it affect the bodily spirits, in order to bring about voluntary actions?” Question arises
because movement depends on how much, it is pushed, the manner in which it is pushed, or
the surface-texture and shape of the thing that pushes it.
Interaction problem: the mental and physical interact. (But how? fatal to dualism)
Causal closure of the physical world: no energy (hence no mass) gets in or out the system:
every physical event has a physical cause. If this applies, mental causes seem to be
unintelligible. Patrick Swayze Problem: how can a non-physical substance collide with
physical substance?
Descartes response: doesn’t know. We are clearly both mental and physical substances, but we are
not passive: mind and body are closely connected.
Hypothesis: mind and brain are connected in the pineal gland. Does not say how interaction
takes place.
Or: God takes care of the interaction
Occasionalism: only God is the true cause of things. The thought of raising my arm isn’t
the cause of raising my arm. It’s the occasion for God to raise it.
Parallelism: mental and physical run parallel because God made them to do so; they
don’t interact. One doesn’t lead to the other, they simply happen at the same time.
One problem (how do M&P interact) is simply replaced by another (how does God do this?).
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