Philosophy of Mind – Summary
Block 3, Week 1
8 Questions about the Conscious Mind: Chapter 1 – What is the Conscious Mind?
- What is Philosophy?
1) conceptual analysis
- everyday world view = manifest world view; scientific research = scientific world view
- philosophy: asking what is meant by concepts, looking at relation between world views
2) conceptual clarification
- looking at science to tell us more about concepts you’re investigating
3) science of validity
- questioning validity of concepts
4) changing of perspectives
- training to an eye for other opinions
5) search of the truth
6) all of the above, i.e., philosophy = metascience
- all of the above, trying to approximate objective truth
- The hard problem of philosophy: problem of consciousness
➢ People having dualist intentions, but reciprocal connection of brain and body, i.e., not
independent
- Substance: can exist on its own (e.g., wood)
- Property: quality of substance (e.g., being round)
- Separability thesis: thesis that mind can exist and function separately from physical world
- Experiences (thoughts, feelings, taste, …) = mental states, which form conscious mind
- Qualia: qualitative aspects of phenomenal experiences, what-it-is-likeness (Thomas Nagel)
➔ Privileged first-person access
- Mental states:
1) Phenomenal experiences: characterised by qualitative feel
2) Cognitive states: possess intentionality (≠ intention), aboutness
→ archetype of mental state with intentionality: propositional attitude (proposition =
meaning of sentence; different stances)
→ PA’s: discrete entities
- Types of mental states: conceptually distinguishable from another
3) Emotions: both what-it-is-likeness and aboutness
- Conscious vs unconscious mind: states of unconscious can become conscious; existence of
conscious = accessibility to consciousness
, - States not belonging to either (e.g., heartbeat regulation): in a sense unconscious, but no
mental states (impossible to become conscious)
- Mind-body problem: how conscious mind fits into physical world
- Mind-body problems:
1) How do phenomenal experiences fit into the physical world?
2) How do cognitive states fit into the physical world?
3) How do emotions fit into the physical world?
➔ Basic problems:
1) How do qualia fit into the physical world?
2) How does intentionality fit into the physical world?
- Cognition: mental states with aboutness
- Consciousness: phenomenal states of mind
- Metaphysics: philosophical discipline going beyond physics
➔ Not taking science into account, speculations
- Philosophy: brings together data from other sciences, discover false reasoning
Chapter 2 – Can the Mind Function Separately from the Brain?
- Separability thesis (Rene Descartes): mind existing and functioning separately from physical
world (≠ inseparability thesis)
- Sceptics: philosophers arguing that we can never be certain about anything
➔ Michel Eyquem de Montaigne: any claim, even claiming that you know nothing for
certain, too strong
➔ “Que sais-je?”: What do I know?
- Rene Descartes: initial acceptance of method of sceptics, i.e., doubting everything you can
doubt
➔ Conclusion: not possible to trust anything / anyone who has deceived one in the past,
including other humans, and senses, e.g., even existence of body, physical world
(malignant demon creating it)
➔ Only certainty: nothing is certain
- BUT: Descartes’ foundation
➔ Cogito ergo sum (I think therefore I am) = being able to doubt existence meaning being
able to think, thinking only possible if existing
➔ Human = thinking thing (I =?)
- Cogito ergo sum = insight, not argument
➔ Whatever is perceived clearly and distinctly is true: new method to find truths
,- Proof for God: idea of God has to come from perfect being (i.e., God himself)
- Proof for God’s goodness: impossible to deceive, as deception = imperfection
- Conclusion: Descartes’ ideas about mind and body, physical world originating from God =
also existent
➔ = ontological argument
➔ Humans = mind and body, latter existing in world among other physical things
- Thinking and physical thing: two substances, can exist on their own
- Res extensa: physical substance; is extended, three dimensional = has place in space
➔ Physical bodies: moved by other physical bodies
- Res cogitans: thinking substance, not extended
- Substance Dualism (SM): thinking and physical substances = independent of each other
- Humans = both substances / machines closely related to human mind, animals = only
machines, physical things without a mind
- Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia: the interaction problem/Patrick Swayze problem (how can the
physical body and non-physical mind interact?)
➔ Causal closure (CC) of the physical world: no energy (hence no mass) gets in or out the
system, i.e., every physical event has physical cause, making non-physical causes seem
unintelligible
- Bodily/animal spirits: small particles allowing bodily movement (Aelius Galen)
- Descartes’ suggestions:
➢ pineal gland as point of interaction between body and mind
➢ God taking care of interaction, how: no one knows
- Soul moving body without requiring collision, similar to heaviness
- But: body and soul ≠ sailor and ship
➔ Simultaneously unity and distinct from one another: incomprehensible how they interact
- Occasionalism:
➢ Malebranche: only cause of event in world = God
➢ All natural causes, not true but occasional causes (occasion for God to cause another
event)
➢ Mind-body interaction and genuine body-to-body interaction only seeming like, but
not actually interaction: God as cause between two events
- Parallelism:
➢ Geulincx: pre-established harmony between mental and physical world
➢ Leibniz: harmonious monia praestabilita
➢ Will and movement both depending on same supreme designer having created them
to run parallel to one another without actual causal relation
- Both views: mystery not solved; one problem merely replaced by another
, - Jaegwon Kim: inability to come up with satisfactory solution for interaction problem = fatal
to SD
- Parapsychology:
➢ Either: acceptance of separability thesis due to conviction of existence of
parapsychological phenomena
➢ Or: science investigating claims about paranormal ohenomena
- Clairvoyance: instance of extrasensory perception (ESP), would be in support of mind’s ability
to function independently
➔ BUT: no real evidence
- Electronic voice phenomena (EVP): tuning in between radio stations to record white noise
and discover messages from deceased (Raudive voices)
➔ Instrumental Transcommunication (ITC; including photos, etc.)
➔ Most EVP researchers amateurs
➔ No proof of supernatural as cause
➔ Studies by Baruss, Skinner and Warren disproving evidence, e.g., verbal transformations
(VTs): showing that people have tendency to interpret meaningless sounds as meaningful
➢ Pareidolia: phenomenon of recognising meaningful patterns in random stimuli;
affects different senses
➢ Theory of ladenness of perception: what we perceive is influenced by a theory that
tells us what to perceive
- Conclusion: absolutely no empirical support for SD and separability hypothesis
Chapter 3 – Is there Only Mind?
- Substance monism: view that there is only one substance, not two
- Materialism/Physicalism: type of monism usually accepted in modern philosophy of mind,
claiming that everything in the world is physical, material or made out of matter
- Idealism (George Berkely): related to res cogitans/thinking substance, claiming that
everything in the world is mental
➔ No interaction, only mind
- John Locke:
➢ Empiricist: knowledge only gained through sensory experiences
➢ Humans = naïve realists
➢ Primary and secondary properties/qualities: properties that things really have vs
properties that we ascribe to them
➢ Existence of secondary properties dependent on perceiver
- Problematic of Locke: perceiving only properties of thing, not thing having properties
➢ BUT: convinced of existence of substance lying underneath primary properties
- Idealism: primary properties actually also secondary properties
- Three most influential British empiricists: Berkely, Locke, and Hume
Block 3, Week 1
8 Questions about the Conscious Mind: Chapter 1 – What is the Conscious Mind?
- What is Philosophy?
1) conceptual analysis
- everyday world view = manifest world view; scientific research = scientific world view
- philosophy: asking what is meant by concepts, looking at relation between world views
2) conceptual clarification
- looking at science to tell us more about concepts you’re investigating
3) science of validity
- questioning validity of concepts
4) changing of perspectives
- training to an eye for other opinions
5) search of the truth
6) all of the above, i.e., philosophy = metascience
- all of the above, trying to approximate objective truth
- The hard problem of philosophy: problem of consciousness
➢ People having dualist intentions, but reciprocal connection of brain and body, i.e., not
independent
- Substance: can exist on its own (e.g., wood)
- Property: quality of substance (e.g., being round)
- Separability thesis: thesis that mind can exist and function separately from physical world
- Experiences (thoughts, feelings, taste, …) = mental states, which form conscious mind
- Qualia: qualitative aspects of phenomenal experiences, what-it-is-likeness (Thomas Nagel)
➔ Privileged first-person access
- Mental states:
1) Phenomenal experiences: characterised by qualitative feel
2) Cognitive states: possess intentionality (≠ intention), aboutness
→ archetype of mental state with intentionality: propositional attitude (proposition =
meaning of sentence; different stances)
→ PA’s: discrete entities
- Types of mental states: conceptually distinguishable from another
3) Emotions: both what-it-is-likeness and aboutness
- Conscious vs unconscious mind: states of unconscious can become conscious; existence of
conscious = accessibility to consciousness
, - States not belonging to either (e.g., heartbeat regulation): in a sense unconscious, but no
mental states (impossible to become conscious)
- Mind-body problem: how conscious mind fits into physical world
- Mind-body problems:
1) How do phenomenal experiences fit into the physical world?
2) How do cognitive states fit into the physical world?
3) How do emotions fit into the physical world?
➔ Basic problems:
1) How do qualia fit into the physical world?
2) How does intentionality fit into the physical world?
- Cognition: mental states with aboutness
- Consciousness: phenomenal states of mind
- Metaphysics: philosophical discipline going beyond physics
➔ Not taking science into account, speculations
- Philosophy: brings together data from other sciences, discover false reasoning
Chapter 2 – Can the Mind Function Separately from the Brain?
- Separability thesis (Rene Descartes): mind existing and functioning separately from physical
world (≠ inseparability thesis)
- Sceptics: philosophers arguing that we can never be certain about anything
➔ Michel Eyquem de Montaigne: any claim, even claiming that you know nothing for
certain, too strong
➔ “Que sais-je?”: What do I know?
- Rene Descartes: initial acceptance of method of sceptics, i.e., doubting everything you can
doubt
➔ Conclusion: not possible to trust anything / anyone who has deceived one in the past,
including other humans, and senses, e.g., even existence of body, physical world
(malignant demon creating it)
➔ Only certainty: nothing is certain
- BUT: Descartes’ foundation
➔ Cogito ergo sum (I think therefore I am) = being able to doubt existence meaning being
able to think, thinking only possible if existing
➔ Human = thinking thing (I =?)
- Cogito ergo sum = insight, not argument
➔ Whatever is perceived clearly and distinctly is true: new method to find truths
,- Proof for God: idea of God has to come from perfect being (i.e., God himself)
- Proof for God’s goodness: impossible to deceive, as deception = imperfection
- Conclusion: Descartes’ ideas about mind and body, physical world originating from God =
also existent
➔ = ontological argument
➔ Humans = mind and body, latter existing in world among other physical things
- Thinking and physical thing: two substances, can exist on their own
- Res extensa: physical substance; is extended, three dimensional = has place in space
➔ Physical bodies: moved by other physical bodies
- Res cogitans: thinking substance, not extended
- Substance Dualism (SM): thinking and physical substances = independent of each other
- Humans = both substances / machines closely related to human mind, animals = only
machines, physical things without a mind
- Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia: the interaction problem/Patrick Swayze problem (how can the
physical body and non-physical mind interact?)
➔ Causal closure (CC) of the physical world: no energy (hence no mass) gets in or out the
system, i.e., every physical event has physical cause, making non-physical causes seem
unintelligible
- Bodily/animal spirits: small particles allowing bodily movement (Aelius Galen)
- Descartes’ suggestions:
➢ pineal gland as point of interaction between body and mind
➢ God taking care of interaction, how: no one knows
- Soul moving body without requiring collision, similar to heaviness
- But: body and soul ≠ sailor and ship
➔ Simultaneously unity and distinct from one another: incomprehensible how they interact
- Occasionalism:
➢ Malebranche: only cause of event in world = God
➢ All natural causes, not true but occasional causes (occasion for God to cause another
event)
➢ Mind-body interaction and genuine body-to-body interaction only seeming like, but
not actually interaction: God as cause between two events
- Parallelism:
➢ Geulincx: pre-established harmony between mental and physical world
➢ Leibniz: harmonious monia praestabilita
➢ Will and movement both depending on same supreme designer having created them
to run parallel to one another without actual causal relation
- Both views: mystery not solved; one problem merely replaced by another
, - Jaegwon Kim: inability to come up with satisfactory solution for interaction problem = fatal
to SD
- Parapsychology:
➢ Either: acceptance of separability thesis due to conviction of existence of
parapsychological phenomena
➢ Or: science investigating claims about paranormal ohenomena
- Clairvoyance: instance of extrasensory perception (ESP), would be in support of mind’s ability
to function independently
➔ BUT: no real evidence
- Electronic voice phenomena (EVP): tuning in between radio stations to record white noise
and discover messages from deceased (Raudive voices)
➔ Instrumental Transcommunication (ITC; including photos, etc.)
➔ Most EVP researchers amateurs
➔ No proof of supernatural as cause
➔ Studies by Baruss, Skinner and Warren disproving evidence, e.g., verbal transformations
(VTs): showing that people have tendency to interpret meaningless sounds as meaningful
➢ Pareidolia: phenomenon of recognising meaningful patterns in random stimuli;
affects different senses
➢ Theory of ladenness of perception: what we perceive is influenced by a theory that
tells us what to perceive
- Conclusion: absolutely no empirical support for SD and separability hypothesis
Chapter 3 – Is there Only Mind?
- Substance monism: view that there is only one substance, not two
- Materialism/Physicalism: type of monism usually accepted in modern philosophy of mind,
claiming that everything in the world is physical, material or made out of matter
- Idealism (George Berkely): related to res cogitans/thinking substance, claiming that
everything in the world is mental
➔ No interaction, only mind
- John Locke:
➢ Empiricist: knowledge only gained through sensory experiences
➢ Humans = naïve realists
➢ Primary and secondary properties/qualities: properties that things really have vs
properties that we ascribe to them
➢ Existence of secondary properties dependent on perceiver
- Problematic of Locke: perceiving only properties of thing, not thing having properties
➢ BUT: convinced of existence of substance lying underneath primary properties
- Idealism: primary properties actually also secondary properties
- Three most influential British empiricists: Berkely, Locke, and Hume
