Philosophy Of Mind The philosophy of mind is the study of mental states events functions consciousness and the nature of the mind Who am I What does I mean Are we entirely physical things Are there other minds Are we perceiving reality ID: 690061
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What
did I google to find this picture?Slide2
Philosophy Of Mind
The philosophy of mind is the study of mental states, events, functions, consciousness and the nature of the mind.
Who am I? What does “I” mean? Are we entirely physical things? Are there other minds? Are we perceiving reality? Slide3
A Thought Problem
B
Which is the original ship? If you think it is B at what point does it become the original ship?
ASlide4
A Thought Problem
If every part of your body is replaced (on a cellular level) can we definitely say you would be the same person?
If so what makes you the same? Some people think it might be the mind – and here we get to the main issue in the Philosophy of Mind.Slide5
What is the mind?
How would you define the term “mind”?
60 seconds in pairs to come up with a simple definition.
Does it include all someone would need to know?
End
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Defining the Mind
Mind – “Thinking thing or centre of consciousness”
This does not assume we know anything particular about the structure of the “mind” (i.e. whether it is physical or non-physical) It just means that it is the thing that contains our thoughts, or the thing that does the thinking.
“What is ‘mind’?” Is essentially a problem about the kind of thing that contains our
mental states (beliefs, thoughts, desires, emotions, sensations etc.)Slide7
Describing Mental States
Are mental states different from physical states?
Which of the terms below apply to the physical and which apply to the mental?
2 minutes in pairs!
Private
Public
Non-Spatial
Spatial
Transient
Permanent
Follow Laws
Lawless
Key Concepts Sheet!Slide8
Physical states
Mental states
Public
Private
Fallible
Infallible
Spatial
Non-spatial
Permanent
Transient
Follow laws
Lawless/ Anomalous
Don’t have qualia
Have qualia
Don’t have intentionality
Have intentionality
Describing Mental States
It seems then looking at the table below that mental states are very different to physical states.
I’ve also included two key terms here that we’ve not already mentioned: Qualia and Intentionality.Slide9
Intentionality
Quick! What are you currently thinking
about?Slide10
Intentionality
What is this table
about?Slide11
Intentionality
Mental states, such as beliefs, desires, thoughts, emotions, sensations, etc.,
point beyond themselves
; they are
about something else. For example: The emotion of sadness because I failed the exam
is about the exam
.
The thought I would like a good whisky
is about the whisky. The belief that I am awesome is about my awesomeness.
This is consistent for all of our mental states. The mental is characterised by this feature of ‘aboutness’ – a feature to which philosophers refer by the term ‘intentionality’. Slide12
Intentionality
In contrast – physical things, like this table, do not have an
aboutness
.
They do not have
intentionality.
Important
Don’t confuse “Intentionality” and “Intentional”Slide13
Problems with Intentionality
Can you think of any cases where our mental states
lack intentionality
? Where they are
not about something?
What about physical things that do
have intentionality
?
That
are about
things?Slide14
Possible Responses
All mental states are about something (including emotions) but we might not always
recognise
what they are about.
Physical things only have
intentionality
(an
aboutness
) when given it by mental states. Writing on a page would mean nothing without mental states, nor would statues or flags.
Key Concepts Sheet!Slide15
Qualia
Imagine you are a scientist and you have made friends with an alien (she speaks perfect English
).
You have discovered that your alien-friend has a completely different physical body to us. You are trying to find out how similar her experiences are to ours
.
You know that the alien-body needs food for energy, and at certain points she looks for food and eats it.
But you want to know whether she
feels hungry
.
What
would you ask her?End12345
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Qualia Explanation
Qualia
is the Latin term used to refer to the
phenomenological
aspects of conscious experience, the ‘what it is like to be’ in a certain conscious state.
These
properties are subjective (the inner feel of an experience): they can be thought of as our particular points of view or as
our personal experience of the world around us,
and, it is argued, what is subjective (conscious experience) cannot be reduced to what is objective (physical existence).
We might say that while we can know everything there is to know about the physicality of another person, we cannot know what it is like to
be that person.
“This is going to suck for Bob”
We may be able to observe the effect this has on Bobs body (blisters), we may be able to see the nerves firing in his brain (signifying pain) we may even hear him scream out and swear loudly.
But do we really know what it is like for Bob to feel this pain?
Key Concepts Sheet!
The study of the consciousness from the first person point of view.Slide17
Qualia Explanation
In short we can say that Qualia are features of mental states that are:
Introspectively accessible (accessed by looking inside yourself) and subjective (“What it is like”).Slide18
Thomas Nagel
, in an article entitled
‘What is it like to be a bat?’
claims that, in order for something to have conscious mental states, there must be something that it is like to be that thing.For example, that bats have conscious mental states is to say
that there is something that it is like to be a bat. We can deduce that, since a bat’s perceptual apparatus is very different from our own, what it is like to be a bat must be very different from what it is like to be a human being.
However
, what we cannot do is to deduce, purely from the differences in physical characteristics, exactly what the mental characteristics will be. We cannot, in other words, deduce the phenomenology of a bat’s world. It seems to follow from this that qualia are private to each individual.
Qualia ExplanationSlide19
What does this all mean?
The problem then appears to be that physical brain states and mental brain states have very different characteristics.
This seems to suggest that they are clearly two different things.
Physical states
Mental states
Public
Private
Fallible
Infallible
Spatial
Non-spatial
Permanent
Transient
Follow laws
Lawless/ Anomalous
Don’t have qualia
Have qualia
Don’t have intentionality
Have intentionalitySlide20
What does this all mean?
The problem then appears to be that physical brain states and mental brain states have very different characteristics.
This seems to suggest that they are clearly two different things.
For a lot of people (scientists and philosophers) this does not seem right. They believe we are only physical things, there is no mysterious non-physical element to our existence.
But the differences do not support this theory.
This is known as the mind-body problem.Slide21
Where are we going with this?
There are a number of possible responses to
the mind-body problem
(the observation that the mind and body seem to have completely different properties):
These are what we will be discussing and examining throughout the Philosophy of Mind topic.Slide22Slide23
EXAMple
question
What are qualia? (3 marks)Slide24
Which is the best? Why?
A:
Qualia are mental states that are “about” other things, for example I might have a feeling “about” pain or a thought “about” a bat. They are subjective and personal.
B
:
Qualia are kinds of mental state that are personal, subjective and can only be accessed by the person having them. They are the “what it is like” to have a particular feeling. For example, if Bob burns his hand, his feeling of pain can only be accessed by him, I do not know “what it is like” for Bob to be in pain because his feeling of pain may be entirely different from mine (he may not even be feeling pain). This feeling of pain is Qualia.
C:
Qualia are
t
he “what it is like” characteristic of mental states. The way it feels to have mental states such as pain or sadness. They are entirely subjective and only accessible internally to the person having them (introspectively accessible).
How good is your answer?Slide25
Quick Recap
How many differences between the physical and the mental can you list from yesterday
without
looking at your notes?Slide26
The Mind-Body Problem
The
mind–body problem
is the problem of explaining how mental states, events and processes—like beliefs, actions and thinking—are related to the physical states, events and processes, given that the human body is a physical entity and the mind is
non-physical. This is established through looking at the respective properties of the physical and the mental.
Physical states
Mental states
Public
Private
Fallible
InfallibleSpatial
Non-spatial
Permanent
Transient
Follow laws
Lawless/ Anomalous
Don’t have qualia
Have qualia
Don’t have intentionality
Have intentionalitySlide27
Tasks
Mental states
Private
Infallible
Non-spatial
Transient
Lawless /
Anomalous
Have qualia
Have intentionality
Use the list on the right to create
a mind-map
(pictures only) of the ways mental states are different to brain states.
You can use two words maximum for each picture (not counting the keyword itself)
Write
a paragraph
explaining the mind-body problem. Use at least 3 of the things in your mind-map as examples.
Summarise Nagel’s
“What it is like to be a bat” and how it explains what Qualia are. Use your handout to help you. This can be done in pictures or writing.Slide28
Possible Responses
The main body of the Philosophy of Mind is made up of possible responses to these questions, there are a number of possibilities:
4
th
Possibility: Idealism – You may have touched on this last year, any ideas?Slide29