100% satisfaction guarantee Immediately available after payment Both online and in PDF No strings attached
logo-home
Lecture Notes - Philosophy of Mind, Brain and Behaviour $3.21   Add to cart

Class notes

Lecture Notes - Philosophy of Mind, Brain and Behaviour

 32 views  0 purchase
  • Course
  • Institution

Here are my lecture notes of all lectures of the course Philosophy of Mind, Brain and Behaviour. The notes include the pictures used in the slides.

Preview 2 out of 15  pages

  • May 2, 2023
  • 15
  • 2022/2023
  • Class notes
  • &tab;f.j.w. oude maatman
  • All classes
avatar-seller
College 1




Substance dualism

Preliminaries

- Mind: umbrella-term for all mental states
- Mental: intentional (state can be about something else/refer outside themselves)
and/or phenomenal (subject qualitative experience)

Two kinds of dualism

- Substance dualism: mind is a non-physical substance (a soul) that is causally
connected to the body
- Property dualism: the mind is produced by the physical brain, but some of its
properties (phenomenal properties) are non-physical

Psychological behaviourism

Methodological problems with dualism

- Dualism implies introspection as the only feasible scientific methodology
- Introspection is neither objective, nor intersubjective
- Unconscious mental states cannot be topics of scientific research
- Response: define psychology as behavioural science

Logical behaviourism

Background: theoretical problems with dualism

Methodological point of view everything is wrong with
dualism, but this is not the fact for philosophical view

- Interaction problem: matter and mind are two
distinct and independent substances that have
causal effects on one another

Concept of mind:


1

, If you believe dualism, you believe mind and body are depicted as puppeteer and puppet.
This is wrong.

We postulate the mind as a hidden locus of control in order to explain the difference
between intelligent (speaking, writing, riding a bike - there must be an operator: the mind
and non-intelligent behaviour (tripping over something, sneezing - the body doing its
thing)

But we can only do that if we already understand the difference between intelligent and
non-intelligent behaviour

- Conceptual analysis of mind, ordering language philosophy, analyse language.
- Mind is not a thing (that is a category mistake: putting certain things in the wrong
category). The mind is more like an atmosphere at a party, it’s everywhere.
- Mental states are behavioural dispositions

Problems with behaviourism:
- Super stoic: someone who can experience extreme pain but is able to not show it
 experience and behaviour are separated things
- perfect pretender: someone who can perfectly pretend to experience pain while he
is not experience and behaviour are separated things
- Mental holism

Identity theory

Background

- Ullin Place introduces Boring to philosophers such as J.J.C. Smart
- The mind is as manipulable as the brain

Theory

- Mentalistic languages ‘topic neutral’
- Dualism may have been true; but it isn’t
- Mind = brain (= means is identical with)
- This is a scientific discovery comparable to water = H2O

Two problems

- The explanatory gap: you can’t explain why the mind is the same as the brain
- Stating that mental states are brain states doesn’t explain anything
- How can intentionality and phenomenality be physical?
- The water = H2O example is not convincing
- Multiple realization
- According to the identity theory, organisms with different brains cannot
have the same types of mental state
- This is unlikely (think e.g. of pain)


College 2
Functionalism – answer to previous three problems

The basic idea

- Do not define mental states in terms of what they are (brain-stuff, soul-stuff,
behavioural dispositions). Problem for dualism.



2

The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:

Guaranteed quality through customer reviews

Guaranteed quality through customer reviews

Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.

Quick and easy check-out

Quick and easy check-out

You can quickly pay through credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.

Focus on what matters

Focus on what matters

Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!

Frequently asked questions

What do I get when I buy this document?

You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.

Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?

Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.

Who am I buying these notes from?

Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller smaasbach. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.

Will I be stuck with a subscription?

No, you only buy these notes for $3.21. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.

Can Stuvia be trusted?

4.6 stars on Google & Trustpilot (+1000 reviews)

72042 documents were sold in the last 30 days

Founded in 2010, the go-to place to buy study notes for 14 years now

Start selling
$3.21
  • (0)
  Add to cart