Philosophy 1010 Class #4

1. Philosophy 1010 Class #4 Title: Introduction to Philosophy Instructor: Paul Dickey E-mail Address: pdickey2@mccneb.edu Hand in Movie Essay & Reflections Essay. Hand Back Writing Exercises & Pop Quizzes. Hand Out Logic “Cheat Sheet.” Questions? ----------------------------------------------------------------- Alert: Midterm Exam Rescheduled: 10/26 --- 7:30 PM.

2. For Next Week Reading Assignment: Chapter Three, pp. 140-155 & 160-166. • Homework Assignment: • Redo the Logic homework! Use your “cheat sheet.” • Write a two-page “play” as a Socratic Dialogue discussing one of the questions you proposed in your Class #2 writing assignment. Use two characters, you and Socrates. Illustrate the principles of the Socratic Method in your play. (send to me by email by the time of our “virtual” class next week –10/6)

3. Chapter 2 • On Human Nature: A Metaphysical Study • What is it to be Human?What is a Person? • What is a Self? What is a Soul? What is a • Person Worth?

4. In reviewing the different attempts to answer philosophical questions such as these, please note carefully: • 1) Likely each view can give us additional or new insight into the questions and potential answers to the questions and thus provides us a richer understanding of human nature, BUT • No answer will likely give us a complete and/or satisfactory answer that will supplant all the other views. • 3) In short, all views proposed to answer a philosophical question should be respected but examined aggressively. We should not rush either to reject them or to accept them.

5. The Traditional Western View • The Prevalent View Regarding the Nature of Man Makes Four Basic Claims: • That the self is conscious (has reason) and has a purpose • That the self is distinct from the body, but somehow is related. • That the self endures through time. • That the self has an independent existence from other selves

6. Chapter 2 • On Human Nature: • A Metaphysical Study • Video: • What is Human Nature?

7. Ten Minute Break!

8. The Traditional Rationalist View (Plato) • For Plato, humans have a nonphysical or material soul or self in agreeing with all these assumptions. • Plato contends that since reason often conflicts with our desires (or appetites) and that either of these can conflict with our aggression, each of these comprise one of the three main elements of our soul (self). • For Plato, man can choose what part of his self rules his actions. (Free Will?) Because reason alone can know how we ought to live, it should rule the appetite and our aggressions.

9. The Traditional Rationalist View (Aristotle) • Aristotle (384-322 BC) mostly agreed with Plato but went on to argue that reason can discover the truth about man in the natural world, and how we should act. • Thus, Aristotle is rejecting Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, suggesting that Plato’s world of shadows can be known through reason. • Ah, isn’t this the basic motivation for science? • For Aristotle, all living things and the natural world have purpose (telos). The purpose of man is to control desires and aggression through reason.

10. The Traditional Western Religious View (Judeo-Christian) • “The purpose of man is to love and serve God.” (St. Augustine – 354-430 AD) • Although influenced by Plato, this view asserts that humans are made in the image of God. Man has an immaterial and immortal soul and the ability to love and to know, in the very manner of God. • Augustine emphasized that humans have will and intellect, the ability to choose between good and evil. • “The purpose of man is to know God through reason.” (St. Thomas Aquinas - c. 1225 –1274)

11. The Traditional Western View The Traditional Western View of Human Nature is the one most commonly held in our culture. Yet different philosophers throughout history have questioned and rejected every one of the four tenets with various arguments.

12. The most radical view is perhaps the Existentialism of Jean-Paul Sartre -- 1905 – 1980. • “Existence precedes essence.” • Humans are radically free. Human nature itself is determined by a man’s choices. There is no fixed universal human nature (or soul) prior to the choices that an individual free man makes. • Existentialism challenges our basic values of western civilization that human nature in some way is “fixed.” God does not exist. • Human, All Too Human • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxbkPCLlXII

13. The Traditional Western View • The Prevalent View Regarding the Nature of Man Makes Four Basic Claims: • That the self is conscious (has reason) and has a purpose • That the self is distinct from the body, but somehow is related. • That the self endures through time. • That the self has an independent existence from other selves

14. Challenges to the Traditional Rationalist View • Feminism • The traditional view seems to be sexist in that it assumes that reason is male and emotions are female (e.g. Aristotle & Augustine) By calling for the subjugation of emotions to reason, does the traditional view take a gender bias? • Some feminist philosophers repudiate the traditional rationalist view and reject reason as the basis of human nature. Others agree that reason is primary and say the view only needs to be modified to remove gender bias and to acknowledge that reason is gender neutral.

15. Indeed, is the Rationalist View also Racist? • Aristotle claimed that since barbarians were less rational than Greeks, it was justifiable to rule and enslave them because they were less human. • Caveat Emptor: Such an assertion does not logically follow from Plato.

16. The Traditional Western Religious View • For Thomas Aquinas, however, one is not limited in their ability to love and serve God by differing levels of intelligence or knowledge. • In his view of Human Nature, note that Love and Service to God trumps Reason !!! • Question for the class: • Does this view contradict the previously asserted suggestion in the class that it is best to seek truth and wisdom? Or Socrates’ view that the unexamined life is not worth living? Would Aquinas agree with you?

17. Other Challenges to the Traditional Rationalist View • Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) claimed that man acts only to satisfy his desires. In particular, he possesses a basic, powerful desire for aggressiveness and sexual pleasure. Man views others as objects. • Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) claimed that the man’s primary desire was for power over others. • Moritz Schlick (1882-1936) believed that man is able to act only out of self-interest. Schlick recognized the appearance of unselfish behavior, but claimed even such behavior occurred only because of unrecognized self-interest.

18. Darwinism • Evolutionary theory claims that random variations and natural selection make species evolve. To many, this suggests that humans are not unique and that there perhaps isno special purpose to human life. • Charles Darwin – 1809–1882 • Darwin does not himself take a position on the question whether God exists.

19. The Traditional Western View • The Prevalent View Regarding the Nature of Man Makes Four Basic Claims: • That the self is conscious and has a purpose • That the self is distinct from the body, but somehow is related. • That the self endures through time. • That the self has an independent existence from other selves

20. The Dualist View of Human Nature • The Dualist View is an ancient view going back to Plato in the Traditional Rationalist View of Human Nature. • A developed, systematic view of Dualism was best expressed by Rene Descartes (1596-1650). • Descartes argues that he can imagine his self without a body, thus the self is not the body. We cannot think of the self without thought which is immaterial. Thus, the mind and body must be distinct. • Descartes further argues that the mind or “soul” is the essential form of the self and could exist without the body. • I think, therefore I am.

21. The Mind-Body Problem • So how can the mind as a non-physical entity cause the physical body to act and how can the physical body cause changes in the state of the mind? • Can the mind add energy or force to the physical world? • But that is exactly what seems to happen when I decide to move my hand and then move it. • How can a physical body alter a state of consciousness or thought? • But that is exactly what seems to happen when a fly buzzes near my head and I become annoyed.

22. Video: • Is Mind Distinct From the Body?

23. Ten Minute Break!

24. Cartesian Dualism on the Mind-Body Problem • Descartes suggested that the mind/body interacts through the pineal gland, a small gland near the brain by being so small that an immaterial mind could move it. • But the problem remains! No matter how small a physical object is, it is of course still a physical object.

25. Responses to Cartesian Dualism • Descartes “solution” appeared ridiculous to many. • In response, Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716) denied that the mind and body actually do interact. They only appear to do so. • Leibniz argued that the mind and the body operate in parallel universes like synchronized clocks. • Leibniz view however was rejected by many as just as ridiculous as Descartes’ position. • Nicholas Malebranche (1683-1715) argued that such a synchronism could not occur by coincidence. Only by the constant act of God could the two worlds be kept parallel.

26. Materialism • Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) rejects Cartesian dualism claiming that not only was Descartes “solution” to the Mind/Body problem wrong, but the problem itself refutes dualism. • Since mind and body cannot interact, they cannot both exist within human nature. • There can only be one realm of human nature and that is the material world. • All human activities, including the mental, can be explained on the paradigm of a machine.

27. Materialism • Hobbes was reductionist in that he believed that one kind of reality (the mind) could be understood entirely in terms of another (matter). • New scientific techniques of observation and measurement being used by Galileo, Kepler, and Copernicus were making giant strides in understanding the universe. • The spirit of his century suggested to Hobbes that all reality would be explained in time in terms only of the observable and the measurable. • Hobbes himself was unable to explain any mental processes in terms of the physical. • Perhaps motivating Hobbes’ view was basically his passionate faith in the advancement of science at the time.

28. The Mind/Brain Identity Theory • Hobbes’ materialism became a research strategy for the sciences and modern philosophy. • The Identity Theory claims that states of mind (e.g. consciousness) are identical with states of the brain. Someday science will discover what states of the mind (e.g. “desiring, “being happy,” etc) coincide with particular states of the brain. • A prime proponent of the Identity Theory is J.J.C. Smart (1920-) • The relationship between brain states and mind states is “contingent” or empirical and not “necessary” or logical. It is a subject of science, not philosophy. It cannot be understood by clarifying the meanings of our words or through reason alone.

29. The Mind/Brain Identity Theory • Although materialism is a strong force in philosophy to this day, not all modern philosophers “buy in” to the Identity Theory. • Norman Malcolm (1911-1990) argues against the Mind/Brain Identity Theory. • He claims that mental states have no location in space like brain states do. Thoughts require abstract context such as rules and practices, mutual understandings between parties, and assumptions. Since brain events do not, then brain states cannot ever be identical to mental states.

30. Behaviorist View of Human Nature • Behaviorism is a form of Materialism. • Behaviorism as a school of psychology proposed to restrict the study of humans to what could be observed. Since consciousness cannot be observed, they would say, it is not to be studied by psychology. • Gilbert Ryle (1900-1976) claimed in his book The Concept of Mind that mental activities and states can be explained in terms of the external, observable behaviors with which they are associated. • For Ryle, to say that a person loves someone is only to say that she is likely to behave in certain ways to the other person. Note that this does not refer to any states of consciousness.

31. Behaviorist View of Human Nature • Ryle would tell us that this has to be so because otherwise it would be impossible for us even to we learn the meaning of love, or even pain or fear. We cannot do so by referring to states of consciousness because we cannot know such states in others. • Hilary Putnam (1926 - ) provides a counter-argument to Ryle -- Imagine a super-actor who can give a perfect imitation of someone in pain but does not feel pain or a super-Spartan who can endure pain without showing it. Putnam says the behaviorist would have to deny the possibility of these events. Surely that is wrong. • Thus, Putnam argues that behaviorism throws out the baby (consciousness) with the bath water. • Two behaviorist philosophers have just finished having sex. The first behaviorist says to the second: “It was great for you. How was it for me?”

32. Functionalist View of Human Nature • Functionalism is a form of materialism that is inspired by the model of the modern computer. • D. M. Armstrong (1926 - ) argues that mental activities and states can be explained in terms of perceptual inputs and behavioral outputs. • Mental state are the connections that the material brain makes between certain inputs and outputs. • Or in other words, conscious mental states and activities refer only to the functions that are served in the processes connecting sensory inputs and behavior outputs.

33. Functionalist View of Human Nature • Functionalism allows mental states to explain other mental states, but ultimately must be tied to the perceptual inputs and the behavioral outputs. • A functionalist would say that a machine that connects sensory inputs to a group of behavioral outputs like our brain does would itself have mental states, namely, it would have a mind. • Many philosophers would argue that in the end, functionalism like behaviorism does not provide a fully adequate account of consciousness.

34. Computer View of Human Nature • A view closely related to Functionalism is the view that humans are sophisticated computers. • This view proposes that the mind is a computer following a program that generates outputs when given certain inputs. • Alan Turing (1912-1954) has suggested the Turing Test as a criteria to determine whether computers have minds. • According to Turing, when a computer is able to provide outputs that are indistinguishable in its answers from the answers of a human being, it would be entirely appropriate to say that the computer has a mind. • Turing believed it was only a matter of time before we would have such computers.

35. Computer View of Human Nature • John Searle (1932 - ) proposes the Chinese Room as a counter argument. • Searle asserts that a person following a program that outputs the right Chinese characters when given certain Chinese inputs may not understand Chinese. • Thus, Searle argues that Turing’s view in the end, does not provide a fully adequate account of consciousness. • Searle however does not slide back into Dualism. Instead, he claims that consciousness is a unique kind of human quality and someday science will explain how the brain produces it. It is not reducible to the physical reality of the brain but the brain does in fact produce it.

36. Two Last Views • Eliminative Materialism says that mental states such as consciousness do not exit. They are illusions (“urban myths”?) similar to the illusion in earlier times that the sun rose and set because we believed that the sun revolved around the earth. • Eliminative Materialism does not seem credible to many thinkers. It seems to deny what is obvious. • The New Dualism of David Chalmers (1966 - ) asserts that there is a dualism of properties, not a dualism of entities. • That is, consciousness is not a physical feature of the world, but is non-material property of the world. Consciousness is to a person as the the color red is to a ball. “Red” does not exist in the world as a thing, but only as a property or characteristic of the ball (which is a thing.)

37. In Conclusion • Thus, in conclusion, the Mind/Body problem remains unsolved and, in fact, might still be as baffling today as ever!!!

38. The Traditional Western View • The Prevalent View Regarding the Nature of Man Makes Four Basic Claims: • That the self is conscious and has a purpose • That the self is distinct from the body, but somehow is related. • That the self endures through time. • That the self has an independent existence from other selves

39. Is There An Enduring Self? • Descartes argues that the enduring self is the soul, an • enduring immaterial being or existence. • John Locke (1632-1704)says that the enduring self is a based only on our having continuous memory. • Buddhism asserts that nothing in the universe, particularly the self, remains the same from one moment to the next. • David Hume (1711-1776)also denies that there is an enduring self. He argues that only what we perceive exists and that we never perceive an enduring self, only a constant flow of perceptions.

40. The Traditional Western View • The Prevalent View Regarding the Nature of Man Makes Four Basic Claims: • That the self is conscious and has a purpose • That the self is distinct from the body, but somehow is related. • That the self endures through time. • That the self has an independent existence from other selves

41. Is the Self Independent or Relational? • Descartes argues that the self exists independently of others and the independent self can judge the truth about what is. • Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)suggests that the self is the ability to choose independently of others, and not being determined by conforming to others. • Georg W.F. Hegel (1770-1831) proposes that the self is relational. A person is only free and independent if others recognize him or her to be so. • Charles Taylor (1931- ) argues that we depend on others for the very definition of what our real self is.