Oefenvragen:
1. Name the 4 elements of Dilthey’s approach on psychology.
Psychology should be content-based. It should not focus on brain functions, but on what the mind
comprises (the meaning structure).
The subject matter of psychology was the human experience in its totality. Psychology should not
aim at dissecting the human mind but at describing the complete mind with its constant interplay of
cognition, emotion and volition.
A person’s life was embedded in a context. A person could not be studied in isolation, but had to be
seen in his or her socio-cultural and historical context.
The appropriate method for psychology was understanding because the natural-scientific research
method with its experimentation and bias towards measurement could never grasp the totality of
the mental life within its context.
2. What type of consciousness can be tested with masked priming?
a. Phenomenological consciousness
b. Self-monitoring
c. Access consciousness
3. What is the hard problem?
The fact that consciousness is more than what functionalism explains it to be.
4. What are the three different levels of understanding according to Dilthey?
1. Elementary forms of understanding used to solve the simple problems of life
2. Empathy through which an observer can re-experience someone else’s experiences
3. The hermeneutic level of understanding, by which an observed person can be better
understood than the person understands him/herself
5. How would a mental state like ‘sadness’ be explained by a dualist, materialist and a
functionalist?
A dualist says that brain and mind are two different entities. The mind is immaterial and is the state
of being sad. This state is independent from the body.
A materialist would say that the brain and the mind are both material and that the sadness is a
physical state, caused by some sort of brain activity.
A functionalist would say that sadness has a purpose, like for instance a signal that someone is not
good for you to be around.
, 6. What are two problems with reductive materialism?
a) The identity problem and the interaction problem
b) The interaction problem and multiple realizability
c) The identity problem and multiple realizability
7. Name 3 potential solutions to QRPs (questionable research practices) that are mentioned
in the book and explain them.
Registered report: a type of research article that is evaluated by scientific journals before the data
are collected; goal is to make the evaluation independent of the obtained results and solely
dependent on the research question, the research design and the proposed analyses
Bayesian statistics: estimates the relative probabilities of the null hypothesis; is hoped to correct
existing misunderstandings of statistics
The pottery barn rule: the moral obligation of a scientific journal to publish a failure to replicate a
finding previously published in the journal
8. What explanation of ‘chair’ would best fit the reductionist view and what explanation
would best fit the functionalist view?
a. Wooden object with legs; a place to sit on
b. A place to sit on; wooden object with legs
9. A scientist tries to build a computer that can withstand the Turing test, by giving it the
personality of a deceased man (from “a working theory of love”). Thus this personality has
been first in a biological brain, and after in a mechanical computer.
10. Argue whether this idea stems from a reductionist or non-reductionist perspective of the
mind-body problem.
This idea stems from a non-reductionism perspective of the mind-body problem because it assumes
that there is multiple realizability of the deceased man’s personality; it was first in his brain and will
now be materialized in the computer. Multiple realizability means that mental states cannot be
mapped 1-to-1 onto the brain, which is a non-reductionist view.
11. According to logical positivists, the verification principle was a requirement for valid
knowledge. Why did this principle fail?
In order to move from observation to a general conclusion, one needs inductive reasoning, and
inductive reasoning does not lead to conclusion that are guaranteed to be true according to the rules
of logic. i.e. “All swans are white”. This is called the induction problem.
12. How would a logical-positivist test the consciousness of an AI object/machine? Explain.
They would first observe the AI-thing, then use induct from the observations. If the AI-thing produces
human-like behavior, and humans have consciousness, therefore the logical positivists would
1. Name the 4 elements of Dilthey’s approach on psychology.
Psychology should be content-based. It should not focus on brain functions, but on what the mind
comprises (the meaning structure).
The subject matter of psychology was the human experience in its totality. Psychology should not
aim at dissecting the human mind but at describing the complete mind with its constant interplay of
cognition, emotion and volition.
A person’s life was embedded in a context. A person could not be studied in isolation, but had to be
seen in his or her socio-cultural and historical context.
The appropriate method for psychology was understanding because the natural-scientific research
method with its experimentation and bias towards measurement could never grasp the totality of
the mental life within its context.
2. What type of consciousness can be tested with masked priming?
a. Phenomenological consciousness
b. Self-monitoring
c. Access consciousness
3. What is the hard problem?
The fact that consciousness is more than what functionalism explains it to be.
4. What are the three different levels of understanding according to Dilthey?
1. Elementary forms of understanding used to solve the simple problems of life
2. Empathy through which an observer can re-experience someone else’s experiences
3. The hermeneutic level of understanding, by which an observed person can be better
understood than the person understands him/herself
5. How would a mental state like ‘sadness’ be explained by a dualist, materialist and a
functionalist?
A dualist says that brain and mind are two different entities. The mind is immaterial and is the state
of being sad. This state is independent from the body.
A materialist would say that the brain and the mind are both material and that the sadness is a
physical state, caused by some sort of brain activity.
A functionalist would say that sadness has a purpose, like for instance a signal that someone is not
good for you to be around.
, 6. What are two problems with reductive materialism?
a) The identity problem and the interaction problem
b) The interaction problem and multiple realizability
c) The identity problem and multiple realizability
7. Name 3 potential solutions to QRPs (questionable research practices) that are mentioned
in the book and explain them.
Registered report: a type of research article that is evaluated by scientific journals before the data
are collected; goal is to make the evaluation independent of the obtained results and solely
dependent on the research question, the research design and the proposed analyses
Bayesian statistics: estimates the relative probabilities of the null hypothesis; is hoped to correct
existing misunderstandings of statistics
The pottery barn rule: the moral obligation of a scientific journal to publish a failure to replicate a
finding previously published in the journal
8. What explanation of ‘chair’ would best fit the reductionist view and what explanation
would best fit the functionalist view?
a. Wooden object with legs; a place to sit on
b. A place to sit on; wooden object with legs
9. A scientist tries to build a computer that can withstand the Turing test, by giving it the
personality of a deceased man (from “a working theory of love”). Thus this personality has
been first in a biological brain, and after in a mechanical computer.
10. Argue whether this idea stems from a reductionist or non-reductionist perspective of the
mind-body problem.
This idea stems from a non-reductionism perspective of the mind-body problem because it assumes
that there is multiple realizability of the deceased man’s personality; it was first in his brain and will
now be materialized in the computer. Multiple realizability means that mental states cannot be
mapped 1-to-1 onto the brain, which is a non-reductionist view.
11. According to logical positivists, the verification principle was a requirement for valid
knowledge. Why did this principle fail?
In order to move from observation to a general conclusion, one needs inductive reasoning, and
inductive reasoning does not lead to conclusion that are guaranteed to be true according to the rules
of logic. i.e. “All swans are white”. This is called the induction problem.
12. How would a logical-positivist test the consciousness of an AI object/machine? Explain.
They would first observe the AI-thing, then use induct from the observations. If the AI-thing produces
human-like behavior, and humans have consciousness, therefore the logical positivists would
