Philosophy Notes
Lectures
Part 1: The Mind-Body Problem
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Part 2: Psychology as a scientific discipline
Week 4
Week 5
Part 3: Selected Topics
Week 6
Week 7
Seminars
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 5
Week 7
Self Study Assignments (SSA)
SSA Week 1 (Lecture 1a & 1b)
SSA Week 2 (Lecture 2a & 2b)
SSA Week 3 (Lecture 3)
SSA Week 4 (Lecture 4a & 4b)
SSA Week 5. (Lecture 5a & 5b)
SSA Week 6. (Lectures 6a & 6b)
SSA Week 7. (Lectures 7a & 7b)
, Lectures
Part 1: The Mind-Body Problem
- How is the mind related to the body?
Week 1
Philosophy of Mind, Brain and Behavior, chapter 1 - 1.2
Lecture 1a
Philosophy of Mind, Brain and Behavior, chapter 1.3 - 1.4
Lecture 1b
Lecture 1a: Dualism & Behaviorism
Philosophical toolbox 1) Determining the certainty of claims (e.g. smoking = cancer)
○ How strong is the evidence for that claim?
2) Assessing the strength of arguments
○ Causation vs correlation distraction
○ Slippery slope
3) Analyzing concepts definitions and explananda
○ Free will & consciousness
4) Interpreting scientific results & conclusions
5) Scientific integrity
6) Ethical reflection
The Mind Label for mental states (container)
➔ Perception
➔ Sensations
➔ Emotions
➔ Belief, desires & intentions
But also…
➔ Language
➔ Rationality
➔ Morality ethics
➔ Consciousness
Substance dualism
Descartes ➔ Humans are created of two substances
◆ Mental & physical (bodies)
➔ Substance: “fundamental building block of reality”
➔ Physical substance: extension (size, shape, location in space)
➔ Mental substance: thinking= reasoning, imagining, sensing willing,
doubting, hoping
➔ Believes it is all conscious!
Arguments for distinction - Humans have: rationality, language, consciousness
- Introduced consciousness
Problems - Physical objects do not have rationality, language, consciousness?
- Animals: just to a different degree
- Robots? Computers?
,Cogito ergo sum ➔ “ I think therefore I am”
➔ I can doubt everything except for the fact that I am doubting
Leibniz principle of identity ● Two things are the same (x=y) only if it shares all properties
of indiscernibles ● Establish criteria for identity
Arguing mind-body dualism
A. I can doubt that I have a body
B. I can’t doubt that I exist
C. Therefore I am not identical with my body
Problems with this principle
- Doesn’t work for psychological states because:
- When you think about something it is not a property
- Perception changes (morning vs evening star)
- We can be wrong! Misguided.
- You can doubt you have a body but it doesn’t mean it’s not identical
- Epistemology: how we know
- Otology: what there is
- There is a difference between them
Mental causation Problems
● Causal interaction between mental & physical substances
○ If they are distinguishable how do they interact?
○ How does belief lead to action?
● The causal closure of the physical domain: we can give a full physical
explain without reference to any mental
○ Give a full explanation with physical
○ We make up reasons & explanations
Methodological problems ● Descartes: we know our mind by means of introspection (looking inward)
● We are aware of our own mental states but when it comes to others we just
see their physical state which we infer by
○ Additional step with other people (interpretation)
● Asymmetry between how we know ourselves & how we know others
● How reliable is introspection?
William James Introspection: The mention is not infallible
- We have to rely on introspection first
- Uncertainty is in all observation
Materialism/physicalism ● No difference, no mental substance
○ No factored reality
● Everything is matter
● How do we explain the mind?
Psychological behaviorism
John Watson Psychology is an objective experimental branch. Introspection is not essential. Focus
on behavior, environment vs person
Psychological behaviorism Methodological thesis
- Explanation of behavior in terms of stimulus response rations
- Classical conditioning
, - Against postulating internal non observable (mental) states and introspection
Problems
- Hard to identify exact stimuli you are responding to
- “Poverty of the stimulus argument” (Chomsky)
- Rapid development of language must have an innate (internal)
component
Philosophical behaviorism Understanding of what the mind is
- Mental states are behavioral dispositions
- Tendency to display certain behavior in circumstances
- Not the cause of behavior and does not guarantee that it will occur
-
Gilbert Ryle ‘concept of Para mechanical hypothesis: difference between intelligent and non intelligent
mind’ behavior caused by the mind
- Smart =caused by the mind
Ryle: this is cartesian (dualistic) assumption
- The mind is not a thing but a linguistic term, concept
- The mind is the way behavior is organized
Problems
- Based on category mistake
- Category mistake: things belonging to a category are presented as if they
belong to a different category
- Holism of the mental: there is no one to one relation between behavior and
mental states
- Same mental state can lead to different behaviors in different circumstances
- List of all possible behaviors in all circumstances are infinitely long
- Super stoic: mental state but no corresponding behavior expression
- Perfect pretender: behavioral expression without mental state
Lecture 1b: Identity Theory & Functionalism
Penfild’s cortical homunculus Map of different sensory motor areas are in the mind
Sperry and Gazzaniga’s Method
experiments with split brain - Projected words on the screen “key” on left and “ring” on right
patients - Unilateral processing, Split brain: corpus callosum is separate
Results
- Identify with their left hand that they were touching a key but when
asked what they touched they would say ring
- Speech is located in the left hemisphere, were not able to process what
they saw
- Vision is in the left hemisphere
Lectures
Part 1: The Mind-Body Problem
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Part 2: Psychology as a scientific discipline
Week 4
Week 5
Part 3: Selected Topics
Week 6
Week 7
Seminars
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 5
Week 7
Self Study Assignments (SSA)
SSA Week 1 (Lecture 1a & 1b)
SSA Week 2 (Lecture 2a & 2b)
SSA Week 3 (Lecture 3)
SSA Week 4 (Lecture 4a & 4b)
SSA Week 5. (Lecture 5a & 5b)
SSA Week 6. (Lectures 6a & 6b)
SSA Week 7. (Lectures 7a & 7b)
, Lectures
Part 1: The Mind-Body Problem
- How is the mind related to the body?
Week 1
Philosophy of Mind, Brain and Behavior, chapter 1 - 1.2
Lecture 1a
Philosophy of Mind, Brain and Behavior, chapter 1.3 - 1.4
Lecture 1b
Lecture 1a: Dualism & Behaviorism
Philosophical toolbox 1) Determining the certainty of claims (e.g. smoking = cancer)
○ How strong is the evidence for that claim?
2) Assessing the strength of arguments
○ Causation vs correlation distraction
○ Slippery slope
3) Analyzing concepts definitions and explananda
○ Free will & consciousness
4) Interpreting scientific results & conclusions
5) Scientific integrity
6) Ethical reflection
The Mind Label for mental states (container)
➔ Perception
➔ Sensations
➔ Emotions
➔ Belief, desires & intentions
But also…
➔ Language
➔ Rationality
➔ Morality ethics
➔ Consciousness
Substance dualism
Descartes ➔ Humans are created of two substances
◆ Mental & physical (bodies)
➔ Substance: “fundamental building block of reality”
➔ Physical substance: extension (size, shape, location in space)
➔ Mental substance: thinking= reasoning, imagining, sensing willing,
doubting, hoping
➔ Believes it is all conscious!
Arguments for distinction - Humans have: rationality, language, consciousness
- Introduced consciousness
Problems - Physical objects do not have rationality, language, consciousness?
- Animals: just to a different degree
- Robots? Computers?
,Cogito ergo sum ➔ “ I think therefore I am”
➔ I can doubt everything except for the fact that I am doubting
Leibniz principle of identity ● Two things are the same (x=y) only if it shares all properties
of indiscernibles ● Establish criteria for identity
Arguing mind-body dualism
A. I can doubt that I have a body
B. I can’t doubt that I exist
C. Therefore I am not identical with my body
Problems with this principle
- Doesn’t work for psychological states because:
- When you think about something it is not a property
- Perception changes (morning vs evening star)
- We can be wrong! Misguided.
- You can doubt you have a body but it doesn’t mean it’s not identical
- Epistemology: how we know
- Otology: what there is
- There is a difference between them
Mental causation Problems
● Causal interaction between mental & physical substances
○ If they are distinguishable how do they interact?
○ How does belief lead to action?
● The causal closure of the physical domain: we can give a full physical
explain without reference to any mental
○ Give a full explanation with physical
○ We make up reasons & explanations
Methodological problems ● Descartes: we know our mind by means of introspection (looking inward)
● We are aware of our own mental states but when it comes to others we just
see their physical state which we infer by
○ Additional step with other people (interpretation)
● Asymmetry between how we know ourselves & how we know others
● How reliable is introspection?
William James Introspection: The mention is not infallible
- We have to rely on introspection first
- Uncertainty is in all observation
Materialism/physicalism ● No difference, no mental substance
○ No factored reality
● Everything is matter
● How do we explain the mind?
Psychological behaviorism
John Watson Psychology is an objective experimental branch. Introspection is not essential. Focus
on behavior, environment vs person
Psychological behaviorism Methodological thesis
- Explanation of behavior in terms of stimulus response rations
- Classical conditioning
, - Against postulating internal non observable (mental) states and introspection
Problems
- Hard to identify exact stimuli you are responding to
- “Poverty of the stimulus argument” (Chomsky)
- Rapid development of language must have an innate (internal)
component
Philosophical behaviorism Understanding of what the mind is
- Mental states are behavioral dispositions
- Tendency to display certain behavior in circumstances
- Not the cause of behavior and does not guarantee that it will occur
-
Gilbert Ryle ‘concept of Para mechanical hypothesis: difference between intelligent and non intelligent
mind’ behavior caused by the mind
- Smart =caused by the mind
Ryle: this is cartesian (dualistic) assumption
- The mind is not a thing but a linguistic term, concept
- The mind is the way behavior is organized
Problems
- Based on category mistake
- Category mistake: things belonging to a category are presented as if they
belong to a different category
- Holism of the mental: there is no one to one relation between behavior and
mental states
- Same mental state can lead to different behaviors in different circumstances
- List of all possible behaviors in all circumstances are infinitely long
- Super stoic: mental state but no corresponding behavior expression
- Perfect pretender: behavioral expression without mental state
Lecture 1b: Identity Theory & Functionalism
Penfild’s cortical homunculus Map of different sensory motor areas are in the mind
Sperry and Gazzaniga’s Method
experiments with split brain - Projected words on the screen “key” on left and “ring” on right
patients - Unilateral processing, Split brain: corpus callosum is separate
Results
- Identify with their left hand that they were touching a key but when
asked what they touched they would say ring
- Speech is located in the left hemisphere, were not able to process what
they saw
- Vision is in the left hemisphere
