Philosophy of the Mind
The philosophy of mind is concerned with the problems associated with the functioning of the mind or brain.
Philosophy & Cognitive Psychology
Epistemology- The study of the nature, origin, and limits of human knowledge
Rationalist- The mind is primary source of knowledge
A point of view that states that reason plays the main role in understanding the world and obtaining knowledge
All knowledge acquired through reasoning
That we understand the world through logic & reasoning - perceiving the world through our senses is unreliable/ has limitations
The mind is fundamentally rational, representational, and rule-governed
Truth can best be discovered by reason and factual analysis
Not faith, dogma or religious teaching
Innate class-"Some ideas are present from birth"
All ideas in our minds does not come from our senses but formed by means of an innate mechanism for 'forming ideas'
A prior Knowledge- "Some ideas are true independent of experience"
That knowledge which is independent of experience must be more trustworthy because it has less to do with the senses.
Empiricist- Knowledge derives ultimately from experience & sensation
Knowledge is essentially empirical
The mind is "white paper, void of all characters, without any ideas"
We abstract from what the world presents to us, to arrive at our eventual knowledge of what there is in that world
Empirical Knowledge
Intuitive= Most obvious and most difficult to doubt
Demonstrative= When we begin to put simple ideas together to form complex ones, we are demonstrating something.
Sensitive= Most uncertain because it relies merely on the evidence of the senses.
Determinism
All events in the world are the result of some previous event, or events
All of reality is already in a sense pre-determined or pre-existent and, therefore, nothing new can come into existence
Law of nature
Genetic inheritance
That human freedom is simply an illusion
Free Will
That we as conscious human beings are free to make genuinely undetermined choices in circumstances where we are genuinely able to do so, and where we so freely, or (relevantly) unconstrainedly, choose to do so
The Mind-Body Problem
Problem of explaining how our mental states, events and processes(i.e. beliefs, actions and thinking) are related to the physical states, events and processes in our bodies.
Theory suggesting that the mental and the physical entities are radically different kinds of thing.
That if someone wonders whether or not they exist, that is, in and of itself, proof that they do exist
Dualism
Non-Physical Entity (Mind)
All our conscious reasoning, ideas, knowledge and intelligence reside here
Qualia= the ways things seem to us
Physical Entity=(Body)
Where we experience the world through our senses
It is the interaction between the 2 entities that creates our unique identity
Always divisible
Dualism & Its Critique
Dualism is upheld by major religions in the world(i.e. immortal soul)
However, overhelming evidence suggest that mind and brain are closely correlated / linked
The human soul does not perish with the body, and that God exists
Personality is changed with damage to the prefrontal cortex
Self is diminished- slowly eaten up - in Alzheimer disease
Strong evidence showing that Schizophrenia and Depression has to do with the malfunctioning of neurotransmitters
Materialism
Everything that actually exists is material or physical (i.e. matter)
The only thing that can truly be said to exist is Matter
Rejects doctrines of immaterial substance such as the nonphysical entity in Dualism
The world of matter as composed of tiny indivisible parts (i.e. atoms)
The forms material things take depend on the attributes of these atoms- sizes, shape, location
Humans are made of atoms
The different aspects of humans (i.e. bodies, soul) results from the different sorts of atoms
All objects & events can be reduced to the lawful behavior of the element of which they are constructed (i.e. atoms)
The mind is identical to the brain in all aspects
Mental states are identical to brain states, that facts about mentality are reducible to physical facts
Operations of the mind can be understood strictly in terms of the functions of the brain
Materialism has difficulty explaining the existence of psychological phenomena such as thoughts, beliefs, desires, intentions, and sensory experiences
Philosophy & Neuroscience
Neuroscience
Attempt to explain cognitive processes in terms of underlying brain mechanism
Describe the biological 'hardware' upon which mental 'software' supposedly runs
Learn more the structures and functions of the human brain and how they relate to the behaviors we observe in people
Philosophy of mind
Formulating & answering questions about the universe
The nature of knowing (epistemology)
the mind-body distinction
the mind-brain distinction
The philosophy of mind is concerned with the problems associated with the functioning of the mind or brain
Philosophy & Linguistics
Linguistics
Philosophy of mind
Investigate human capacity for language and what it indicates about the nature of the human brain
The units of language- elements of form, words, grammatical patterns, conventions of usage- are in some sense also units of cognition
Formulating & answering questions about the universe
The philosophy of mind is concerned with the problems associated with the functioning of the mind or brain
the nature of knowing (epistemology)
the mind-body distinction
the mind-brain distinction
Philosophy & Artificial Intelligence
AI
Attempt to model human capacities
AI strives to build intelligent entities as well as understand them
Philosophy of mind
Formulating & answering questions about the universe
The philosophy of mind is concerned with the problems associated with the functioning of the mind or brain
the mind-body distinction
The nature of knowing (epistemology)
the mind-brain distinction