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Mind & Thought

Mind & Thought. What’s up. Argument from Possibility Argument from Privileged Access Chinese Room Argument Descartes’ argument against animal minds. Will you survive your bodily death?. Core elements of Near-Death Experiences (Long and Perry, Evidence of the Afterlife .).

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Mind & Thought

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  1. Mind & Thought

  2. What’s up • Argument from Possibility • Argument from Privileged Access • Chinese Room Argument • Descartes’ argument against animal minds

  3. Will you survive your bodily death?

  4. Core elements of Near-Death Experiences (Long and Perry, Evidence of the Afterlife.) • Out-of-body experience • Intense and generally positive emotions • Passing through a tunnel • Encountering a mystical or brilliant light • Having a life review

  5. What am I?

  6. Brain = Mind? • Brain • Tissue • Neural networks • Mind • Thoughts, emotions, conscious experiences

  7. The Soul Substance dualism • Human beings are made up of 2 distinct substances (i.e. body + soul)

  8. Argument from Possibility

  9. Matrix Appearance & Reality • It is logically possible that what we perceive is not real. • It is true that what we perceive is not real (?)

  10. Distinctions Logically possible True

  11. Is it possible that you are now dreaming?

  12. Possibilities in this dream Scenario 1 Scenario 2 My body exists My body doesn’t exist I exist I exist It is impossible that I am conscious, yet I don’t exist.

  13. Diversity of Discernibles • If X has property P, but Y lacks property P, then X is not the same thing as Y. BODY I ? Lacks property of “possibly existing while your body does not exist” Property of “possibly existing while your body does not exist” “Property P”

  14. Argument from Possibility • If I have the property P, but my body lacks the property P, then I am not the same thing as my body. • I have the property P, but my body lacks the property P. • Therefore, I am not the same thing as my body. Diversity of Discernibles Dream example Conclusion

  15. Is it possible? • It seems to me that X is true. • ‘But it is possible that X is not true’ • i.e. I may be mistaken that X is true • ‘But if X isn’t true, then what is true?’ Must we know what is true before we can tell that it’s possible that X isn’t true?

  16. Example Hmmm… This could be really a puppy… but it could also be a kitten, or some living thing I don’t know about • I seem to see a puppy. • I have taken a drug which makes me see all living things as puppies. • “It is logically possible that this is not a puppy” • Do you agree?

  17. Descartes’ Meditations “So I shall suppose that some malicious, powerful, cunning demon has done all he can to deceive me… I shall think that the sky, the air, the earth, colours, shapes, sounds and all external things are merely dreams that the demon has contrived as traps for my judgment. I shall consider myself as having no hands or eyes, or flesh, or blood or senses, but as having falsely believed that I had all these things.”

  18. It is logically possible that an evil demon is now deceiving you into thinking you have a body. It is logically impossible that an evil demon is now deceiving you into thinking you exist. It is logically possible that you exist while your body does not exist.

  19. “Well, then, what am I? A thing that thinks. What is that? A thing that doubts, understands, affirms, denies, wants, refuses, and also imagines and senses.” I am a soul

  20. We will die. Our bodies will disintegrate. We are souls. Will we continue to exist?

  21. Argument from privileged access

  22. Think of a number

  23. What number did your neighbour think of? • Questioning, history, facial cues, etc • Check brain • Correlation between brain states and mental states How do we discover that truth? There is a truth of the matter about what number your neighbour thought of.

  24. Compare By thinking it • We might tell what you are thinking by indirect methods • But how do you tell what you are thinking?

  25. Privileged access • You always have privileged access to your own thoughts, emotions and experiences • You can directly know what you are thinking, feeling and perceiving • Others can only know indirectly

  26. What is the number on this slide? 1

  27. Public access • No one always has privileged access to the physical world • Counter-examples? • The physical objects in your house?

  28. A comparison Body • You find out about it in the same way others find out about it • 3rd person point of view Mind • You find out about it in a different way compared with how others find out about it • 1st person point of view

  29. Diversity of Discernibles • If X has property P, but Y lacks property P, then X is not the same thing as Y. BODY MIND ? Lacks property of “always having privileged access” Property of “always having privileged access” “Property P”

  30. Part 2

  31. Pain & Pain behaviour Pain + pain behaviour Pain behaviour

  32. Encountering a Zombie • Definition of a Zombie • Looks exactly like humans • Behaves exactly like humans • But has NO consciousness

  33. Could your neighbour be a Zombie?

  34. Are you conscious? How do you know?

  35. Diversity of Discernibles • If X has property P, but Y lacks property P, then X is not the same thing as Y. BODY MIND ? Lacks property of “always having privileged access” Property of “always having privileged access” “Property P”

  36. The general argument • If I have the property P, but my body lacks the property P, then I am not the same thing as my body. • I have the property P, but my body lacks the property P. • Therefore, I am not the same thing as my body. Diversity of Discernibles Reflection Conclusion

  37. What am I? ‘The brain begins to seem like a magic box, a font of sorcery…how can sending an electric current into a bunch of cells produce conscious experience? What do electricity and cells have to do with conscious subjectivity? How could a conscious self exist inside such a soggy clump?’ - Colin McGinn, The Mysterious Flame

  38. Review • Brain & Mind • Substance dualism • Empirical vs Philosophical argument for Dualism The Argument from Possibility • Logically possible vs True • Diversity of Discernibles The argument from Privileged Access • Behaviour & Mental states • Zombies • Private vs Public access

  39. What are we? • Souls? • Complex Machines? • Utterly different from (other) animals?

  40. How do you tell if some entity is intelligent?

  41. The Turing Test

  42. Searle’s target • Strongvs Weak AI • Passing the Turing Test proves: • The computer understands what it is told (?) • And it explains human ability to understand and respond accordingly (?) • “The claim that • appropriately programmed computers literally have cognitive states and that • the programs thereby explain human cognition.”

  43. The Chinese Room Argument Ask yourself what it would be like if your mind actually works in the way this theory says all minds work.

  44. The Chinese Room Scenario • Assume you don’t know Chinese • Suppose you’re locked in a room & given a passage of Chinese writing • Thereafter, suppose you’re given a collection of notes with Chinese writing, together with a set of rules for correlating the passages with the notes • The rules are in English, which you know

  45. The Chinese Room Scenario • The rules tell you how to give back a specific note with certain Chinese symbols in response to how the initial passage of Chinese writing looks like • This process continues for some time • Receive initial passage of Chinese writing • Check English rules to determine which note to give back See this, then return this

  46. The Chinese Room Scenario Unknown to you, those who give you the Chinese writing believe: • The initial passages of Chinese writing = ‘Questionsfor you’ • The rules = ‘The Program’ • The notes I give back = ‘Your answers to our questions’

  47. Evaluation • After a long time, you become very good at receiving passages, checking the rules and then returning notes. • You have inputs and outputs that are indistinguishable from the expert Chinese speaker • But do you understand Chinese? See this, then return this

  48. Searle’s target • Passing the Turing Test proves: • The computer understands what it is told (?) • And it explains human ability to understand and respond accordingly (?) • Strongvs Weak AI • “The claim that • appropriately programmed computers literally have cognitive states and that • the programs thereby explain human cognition.”

  49. Searle’s target • Passing the Turing Test proves: • The computer understands what it is told (?) • And it explains human ability to understand and respond accordingly (?) • Strongvs Weak AI • “The claim that • appropriately programmed computers literally have cognitive states and that • the programs thereby explain human cognition.”

  50. English Room Scenario • Suppose instead you’re now locked into a room and given English questions instead • You are given a pen and blank paper to write responses. • You then given back what you’ve written. • Your inputs and outputs are distinct from the expert English speaker

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