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Samenvatting Philosphy
- Instelling
- Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen (RU)
- Boek
- Philosophy of Mind
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Philosophy of Mind, Brain and BehaviourCHAPTER 1: THE MIND -BODY PROBLEM
The mind is used as an umbrella-term. It refers to processes and states that we refer to as mental
such as thinking, having beliefs and desires, perceiving, being conscious, experiencing emotions and
forming and acting on intentions.
1.1 Substance Dualism:
People consist of two parts, a material body and an immaterial soul. The term ‘substance’ means:
something that can exist independently. Substance dualists emphasize that there is a continuous
interaction between the soul and the body. In daily life, body and soul form one unity – man, but in
principle, body and soul can exist as separate entities. Descartes said that the soul doesn’t occupy
space and has no extension. The essence of the immaterial soul, is what he called thinking (imagining,
perceiving, desiring, believing, doubting, hoping and dreaming).
Descartes substance dualism is the product of his quest for the foundations of scientific knowledge.
These foundations should consist of knowledge we can’t doubt. Descartes was radical, it doesn’t
matter if it’s reasonable to doubt knowledge, all that matters is if we can doubt it. He said: I think (I
doubt) therefore I exist (cogito ergo sum). The essence of me is that it is a thinking thing. He accepted
dualism because material objects cannot think. Gottfried Leibniz held that we can only say that x is
the same thing as y, if they share all their properties, called the identity of indiscernibles.
The immateriality of the soul, and its existence as distinct from the material body, is a prominent
feature of the Cartesian view of the mind. Anti-Cartesian don’t believe in an immaterial soul.
Descartes thought that the thinking ‘me’ is separated from the outside world, it is connected through
the senses and behaviour. Knowledge of the wordles resides in the mind as ideas about the world.
Thought is the manipulation of ideas.
Now are we familiar with computers that can reason and produce/understand language. It might be
possible that they are capable of understanding things as people in the future, so Descartes reasons
to accept dualism fail. Wat echter overblijft is het argument van twijfel. We kunnen twijfelen aan het
bestaan van onze hersenen en ons lichaam, maar niet aan het feit dat er iemand is die twijfelt.
Daarom, zo luidt het argument, kan deze persoon niet identiek zijn aan haar hersenen en lichaam.
Ontology is the study of what really exists, epistemology is the study of what we know and how we
can know it. The distinction between the mind and the body in terms of what we can doubt is an
epistemological distinction. It is between the mind and the body as we know them. If de mind and
body are distinct entities, is an ontological conclusion. The argument for substance dualism based on
doubt fails because it draws an ontological conclusion from an epistemological difference.
The interaction problem is an argument against dualism. Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia: how can an
immaterial soul cause a body to move as in when someone moves her arm voluntarily. How can the
material body cause changes in the immaterial soul. Descartes answer involved locating where the
soul influences the body, like a magnet. Nowadays this doesn’t hold up. An explanation of the
influence of an immaterial entity on physical processes will never be possible.
1.2 logical behaviourism
From a dualist position, the only possibility to study the soul as a science was via introspection. The
problem was that introspective reports never can be verified or falsified by others. John Watson
recalibrated psychology as a science of behaviour. He banned the soul, the mind and consciousness as
unscientific. Skinner develop this further as behaviourism and made the mind a scientific taboo.
Outside of science, the taboo did not change the ways in which people spoke and thought about the
, mind. Mensen bleven namelijk spreken over hun gevoelens, emoties, verlangens etc. er waren ook
wetenschappers die alleen wilden praten over dingen die ze echt konden meten. Dit zorgde voor een
probleem. Het ene idee zegt dat praten over gevoelsn en gedachten niet klopt met de wetenschap,
maar mensen gebruiken dit iedere dag in hun lven, regels en wetten. Het andere idee zegt dat er
dingen zijn die je niet kunt meten, maar dit maakt de wetenschap weer onvolledig.
Ryle published his book The Concept of Mind and said that this dilemma is a consequence of
Cartesian thinking. He develop an alternative way of thinking. This is called the logical behaviourism.
His problem with Cartesianism was the idea that the mind is a closed inner realm that get its inputs
from the senses, which produces causal impulses to our muscles as outputs. Intelligent behaviour is
caused by the mind and non-intelligent behaviour is a bodily affair (sneezing, accidentally tripping).
He calls the idea that intelligent behaviour is characterized by its causal origin the para-mechanical
hypothesis. According to this, behaviour and the mind are mechanistically connected. Behaviour is
not part of the mind, so behaviourists ignore this proudly. Ryle wanted to attack this Cartesian
thinking.
Ryle writes about the idea that mind is part of our behaviour and not the causal engine behind it.
Specifieke gedragstendensen onder specifieke omstandigheden worden 'disposities' genoemd. Een
voorbeeld kan ons helpen om de betekenis van deze term te begrijpen. Glas heeft de dispositie van
broosheid. Dit betekent dat glas onder bepaalde omstandigheden zal breken. Het feit dat glas
breekbaar is, betekent niet dat glas altijd aan het breken is, het betekent alleen dat het zal breken
wanneer het met voldoende kracht wordt geraakt. Op dezelfde manier betekent dorst hebben niet per
se dat je aan het drinken bent, het betekent alleen dat je zult drinken onder bepaalde
omstandigheden. It is crucial to distinguish this form of behaviourism from psychological or
methodological behaviourism. Psychological behaviourists study behaviour instead of the mind.
Logical behaviourists define the mind in terms of behaviour.
Pain is something you can pretend you have when you don’t and vice versa. In both situations we
can’t capture the mental state of pain in behavioural terms. Mental holism is a more complex
problem. Mental states are not isolated events but parts of complex networks of states. Ryle attempts
to define mental concepts in terms of behavioural dispositions, one by one. Each mental term refers
to a specific (set of) behavioural disposition(s). According to mental holism, however, behaviour is
always connected to not just one but to a network of many mental states. Moreover, the same kind
of behaviour can be the result of various different networks of mental states. A third problem is the
idea that the connection is conceptual. Ryles writes if you have a conceptual connection, this
excludes a causal connection.
1.3 The Identity Theory:
The identity theory is about the idea if the mind is located in an immaterial soul. Edwin Boring
suggested that consciousness can be understood as a brain process. Place was not simply repeating
Boring's ideas. As a philosopher, he was primarily interested in explaining what we mean when we
say that consciousness is a brain process. He focused on the meaning of the word 'is' in this context,
highlighting different uses of 'is' in sentences like "George Orwell is Eric Blair." The sense of 'is'
relevant to the identity theory is that of indicating identity: George Orwell is the same person as Eric
Blair. Similarly, consciousness is the same process as a specific brain process. To say that
consciousness is a brain process is to say that it is constituted by a brain process, not that it is defined
by it. This understanding of 'is' emphasizes constitution, not definition. While it is logically possible
that the mind is immaterial, Place argues that evidence suggests otherwise.
Smart developed this further, because he applies this to the entire mind. Brain research shows that
the mind and the brain are the same. Smart’s said that mentalistic language is topic natural. This
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