Philosophy of Mind – 8 Questions –
Summary
Chapter 1 – What is the Conscious Mind?
Mental states together form the conscious mind.
Qualia = The qualitative aspects of experience.
- Thomas Nagel: Argued that when our senses are stimulated we have all kinds of
experiences.
There are different types of mental states:
1) Phenomenal experiences = They are characterized by their qualitative feel. The
term phenomenal refers to how something feels, to how something appears to us, to
how some things are experienced.
They are characterized by their what-it-is-likeness.
Qualia are the qualitative aspects of phenomenal experiences.
2) Cognitive state = They possess intentionality; intentionality is the property of being
about something, also called aboutness.
3) Emotion = Possesses both what-it-is-likeness and aboutness.
The relation between the conscious and the unconscious mind is that the states of the
unconscious mind can become conscious given the right circumstances.
- Personal memory: Most of our memories are unconscious initially, but they can become
conscious.
- Unconscious states are not mental states because they lack the ability to become
conscious states.
The central mind-body problem is how the internationality We actually have 2
conscious mind fits into the physical world. problems:
Since we have three mental types, we 1) How do qualia fit into the physical
seem to have three mind-body problems: world?
1) How do phenomenal experiences fit 2) How does intentionality fit into the
into the physical world? physical world?
2) How do cognitive states fit into the Once we know how qualia and
physical world? intentionality fit into the world, we will not
3) How do emotions fit into the physical only know how respectively phenomenal
world? and cognitive states fit into the world, but
The three types of mental states are probably also what the place of the
defined by just two properties: qualia and combination of the two – the emotions – is.
Cognition = Used to refer to the part of the mental states that have aboutness.
Consciousness = Used to refer to the phenomenal states of mind, mainly because cognitive
states are mental states that can also be conscious states.
- Many cognitive states are mental states while not being part of the conscious mind –
but they do have the ability to become part of it.
- A phenomenal state is by definition conscious.
Metaphysics is they discipline in philosophy that goes beyond physics If the science of
physics tells us which physical things our universe holds, metaphysics tells us what is beyond
nature.
- Metaphysics can be interpreted as the philosophical discipline that tells us for instance
how it is possible that the world exists in the first place.
- Metaphysics is the type of philosophy that does not take into account what science has
discovered about the world: it chooses fantasy and wild speculations over our best
(methodological) way to gain knowledge about and insight into our world.
Hans: Believes that the problem about the conscious mind and its place in nature must be
answered by science, because science is our best way of finding out what the world is and
how it works. Philosophy is necessary because it is the discipline that ask questions about
concepts.
Often philosophy brings together data from different scientific fields and comes up with
testable hypotheses that scientist themselves might not propose. Philosophers are trained to
discover false reasoning.
, - René Descartes: We are indeed able to reason properly, but we are also prone to
making errors.
If we ignore science or do not take it seriously we run the risk of ending up with theories that
might feel good, but are totally wrong. We also run a risk by taking science seriously; the risk
of finding out that the world is different from what we thought it was.
, Chapter 2 – Can the Mind Function Separately from the
Brain?
Many people accept the idea that the mind can exist and function separately form the
physical world The separability thesis.
- The alternative is the inseparability thesis = The idea that the mind cannot function
separated from a physical body.
Skeptics are the philosophers who argue that we can never be certain about anything, and
that we will always have to postpone our judgments.
Montaigne: There was nothing he could be sure of; any claim was open for doubt. He did not
conclude that he did not know anything for certain. If he did, then he would be making a
knowledge claim: You say you know for certain that you do not know anything for certain.
- Posed the question: ‘Que sais-je?’ (What do I know?)
Descartes desired true knowledge about the world. He initially accepted the method of the
skeptics: he doubted everything he could doubt. He argued that he should not trust anything
or anyone that had deceived him in the past This caused a distrust in humans; since they
had not always told the truth, they could no longer be trusted as a source of true knowledge
They could be wrong or lie The same goes for senses (visual illusions).
Descartes said that he could conceive of a malicious almighty demon: A demon so powerful
that it was able to deceive Descartes into thinking that he had a body or that there was a
physical world.
- The only thing Descartes was certain about was just the one fact that nothing is
certain.
Descartes did argue that no matter how powerful the evil demon is, he cannot have him
doubt his own existence. And doubting is a way of thinking: if you doubt, you think, and if you
think, you have to exist (how else can you think?).
- Cognito ergo sum I think, therefore I am.
By now Descartes knows a little more than the skeptic does: He knows that he exists and that
he is a thinking being. Descartes has found a foundation on which he can build the rest of his
knowledge. However, the problem is that there will be doubt about everything else as long as
the evil demon appears on stage.
- The Cognito is not an argument but an insight.
Descartes first asks himself the question: How do I know that ‘I think therefore I am’ is
absolutely true? It’s an insight: ‘That whatever I perceive very clearly and distinctly is true’
Descartes was now able to switch methods in his search for true knowledge.
1) He started with his method of doubting.
2) Then he found a method to help him find truths; those claims that he perceives clearly
and distinctly have to be true.
When he examined his mind, he sees that he has ideas. One of these ideas is that of God – an
idea of the most perfect being. He sees clearly and distinctly that God has to exists By now
Descartes has replaced the evil demon with a virtuous demon: God. And since God does not
deceive, Descartes’ ideas about his body and the rest of the physical world must actually
originate from those corporeal things themselves, and therefore, they must also exist.
This means that Descartes is now certain that he is both a mind and a body. His body is a
physical thing that exists in a world among other physical things.
A substance is that which can exist on its own. The essential property of the thinking
substance or res cognitans is merely that it thinks. The essential property of the physical
substance, or res extensa, is that it is extended, which means that it is three-dimensional: it
has a place in space. There can only be one physical object a ta certain place in space at a
particular time. Physical bodies are moved by other physical bodies bumping into the, pushing
them. And it is only because physical bodies are extended that they are able to bump into
other physical bodies and set them into motion.
Descartes also makes clear that the thinking substance is not extended The thinking
substance does not have a place in space. Since thinking things and physical things are
independent substances according to Descartes, they do not need each other to exist: a body
can exist without a mind, and a mind can exist without a body Descartes was a defender of
the separability thesis.
Descartes argues that human being consists of these two substances.
- Animals were like machines: They are only physical things without a mind.
