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Mind and Brain - Introduction to Neuroscience Midterm Summary
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Tilburg University (UVT)
Psychologie
Philosophy of Mind (500251B5)
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8 questions about the conscious mind
Question one what is the conscious mind?
Conscious mind= mental states that form the conscious mind (tasting coffee, feeling
happy/emotions), having thoughts about something
Nature of the conscious world and how it fits into the physical world
3 types of mental states
1. Phenomenal experiences: Qualia, qualitative aspects of experiences (subjective
experiences) (what-is-it likeness from Nagel)
2. Cognitive state: What you think about something or someone, just for yourself. This
does not affect the object or person, only you. Also called aboutness.
3. Emotion: combines the two above, having the phenomenal feel (you experience it)
and it’s about something or someone
Problems this generates:
Mind-body problem = How the conscious mind fits into the physical world
= 3 different problems as there’s 3 different mental states
1. How do phenomenal experiences/ qualia fit into the physical world
2. How do cognitive states / intentionality fit into the physical world
They’re only defined by two properties (intentionality and qualia). So solving this
would also solve the emotions problem.
Terminology
Cognition= part of mental states that have aboutness
Consciousness= phenomenal states in the mind, because cognitive states (mental states)
can also be conscious states but are mostly not part of the conscious mind.
Metaphysics= philosophy that goes beyond what physics explains, not taking it into account
either
But: we’ll need science to explain many things and cannot just use philosophy alone and
thus take it seriously.
However: it could also uncover things that we did not want to know about our world.
Unconscious and the conscious mind: Everything you’re not aware of, or not thinking about
in the moment is an unconscious mental state
- heartbeat etc. is not a mental state, even though it’s also unconscious, because it cannot
be conscious either way.
,Question 2: Can the mind function separately from the brain?
The separability thesis: that the mind can function on it’s own when it’s separate from the
body
Scepticism: We can never be sure about anything
Michel Eyquem de Montaigne concluded there is nothing to be certain of, but that would
mean there is something you’re certain of, so he didn’t make any claim
Descartes: Looking for something certain with the doubting method
= his own existence, if you doubt, you think and therefore you exist
= foundation for the rest of his knowledge
From this foundation, he starting looking for things that he could see so clearly, they must
be true.
god is one of them, because God is perfect, and he is imperfect, therefore cannot maek
God up
God does not deceive, therefore everything he sees must exist and he is certain about his
mind and body
Substance dualism causes many problems and no empirical support
-thinking thing (res cogitans) and the physical thing (res extensa) are two different
substances and they do not need one another to exist (=Separability thesis)
-Res extensa is extended with space and time, and they are move by other things bumping
into them
-Our body is a machine, still closely related to our mind and connected through the pineal
gland (= solving the interaction problem, how they communicate)
-animal spirits =the soul can move animal spirits in the pineal gland and they transfer this to
the rest of the body, but it does not require collision as he stated before
Occasionalism: the only cause of any event in the world is God
An occasional cause is an event that is an occasion for god to cause another event
this means that the mind and body cannot have a causal effect on one another, is just
seems like there’s an interaction, but in reality it’s god.
= god sees someone wants to lift their arm, and lifts it by changing the body to make the
event happen
Parallelism
=Mind and body are made to act parallel to one another by god, but in reality there is no
causal effect going on between the two
But: both replace one mystery by another not a good sustainable theory
Parapsychology
= paranormal phenomena exist, indirectly accepting the separability thesis
Clairvoyance
= ability to obtain information about an object, person or animal not using the normal
senses, but extrasensory perception (ESP), which is accepting of the theory that mind and
body can exist from one another
= anecdotes, and not sustainable! (=evidence against the separability thesis)
,Electric Voice Phenomena / EVP
= tune into a station between two radio or tv-channels and record the white noise to
uncover messages of the deceased
Instrumental Transcommunication / ITC
= communication of the deceased through pictures as well as tv or radio.
no clear causes, most of them can be explained in natural fashion
pareidolia: recognizing patterns in random stimuli or we see faces in objects
theory of ladenness of perception: we are influenced by a theory that tells us what to
perceive
Conclusion: None of these theories provide evidence for the separability thesis
Lecture 1. 30 jan
The mind-body problem:
Mental life / mental states combined with physical bodies/brains
=what is their relationship, how do they interact?
=feeling hungry and the stomach sending hunger signals, how do these things work
together?
Philosophy functions
1. Conceptual analysis;
everyday world view of concepts (how to use in everyday life)
=manifest world view (Sellars)
Definition of a concept according to science or scientific research
=scientific world view
Philosophy is trying to put these concepts together (concept of the mind, etc.), the
relationship between world views
2. Conceptual clarification
= ask what someone means by their concept and turn to science to see what the concept
means, a more specific explanation, a finessed definition
3. Science of validity
=scientists using causality; philosophers ask questions about this;
How well is causality or other concepts in the questions asked applied and is it a valid use
= are the inferences made correctly
Hume; causality only exists in the mind (giving clarity about causality and that you cannot
always infer causality)
Pearl; causality is not inferred from experience. Only after we have a model and can
consistently induce causality with it
=inference that there is a causal relationship with a set of observations is modelled and you
can manipulate it according to the model.
Both say cause cannot be observed!!
4. A change of perspectives
=train to taking other peoples views into account and changing your own perspective, views,
arguments, which is necessary in debates
, 5. A search for truth
More traditional view, ancient Greece
Sophists are trained to win an argument, not philosophers (Socrates rejects this)! Rather
constructing than obstructing
6. All of the above
Know the concepts, apply them and making valid inferences in relevant contexts
Includes changing our perspective, and finding out the truth
Not: fact-free (pay attention to science), doesn’t need radical scepticism or relativism
Critical thinking: meta-science about your discipline
= ethics
Philosophy of science, looking for evidence
Foundational concepts used in the discipline; mind, psyche, consciousness
The hard problem of consciousness:
when asking questions about consciousness
How can we give a scientific theory of the consciousness? How do we bridge this gap?
with dualist intuitions, thinking of mind and body as separate but they are actually
heavily intertwined; when you feel something, there is always something happing in the
body/ brain as well
Terminology:
A classification:
1. Conscious experiences
= Nagel, what is it like to be a bat? (=because they’re different from us using
echolocation)
=What is it likeness? = same as qualia
= what are their experiences like with their senses?
Experiences/mental states with qualitative aspect about something outside of
yourself = qualia, quale
Qualia is conscious experiences
2. Cognition
Cognitive states have content or are intentional (=having meaning, telling you
something about something)
Propositional attitudes / PA (discrete entities; you can separate these beliefs from
the rest, so saying mental states are discrete)
= stance taken towards a proposition, like believing in something or desiring
something
Having an attitude towards something
3. Emotions
=are qualitative and have intentionality
=because anger is usually about something, a mental state directed to something or
someone
The general problem with 2 subproblems
1. How do conscious experiences fit into the world how do qualia fit into the world
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