Test 2

1. Be able to explain Thomas Nagel's bat argument. Know not only what Nagel was arguing against, but the reasoning that he uses to do so.

Consciousness has a subjective aspect because it is hard to understand other mental states because we can’t experience them. We can know the experience of a bat but we can’t actually know it’s like to actually be one. He argues against reductionism because it doesn’t explain the relationship of mind and body.

2. Be able to explain the Chinese room argument and what it has to do with artificial intelligence.

John Searle imagines himself in a room with Chinese characters they don’t understand and a book of instructions they do. If somebody passes a message to him in Chinese, Searle can simply follow the instructions from the book in order to respond. The other person thinks they are responding to a native Chinese speaker. But in reality they don’t know Chinese they are just using rules and symbols. So same for computers, they use rules and symbols but humans use their mind/thoughts(meaning). Computers stimulate knowledge it’s not intelligence it doesn’t understand it.

3. Know how the luminous room argument works and what it is meant to argue.

Imagine a person in a room, waving a magnet really fast, supposedly to Maxwell’s theory, the magnet should start to glow but that’s not true unless a human isn’t doing. In response to the Chinese Room it is saying that it’s way more complex than that and it doesn’t duplicate everything. Proposed by Paul and Patricia Churchland that said speed and entire connectivity of the brain is much more important for consciousness.

4. Know about the Turing test, especially what it is meant to test and why.

At some point a computer will be able to trick humans into believing it is human. There are 2 humans and a computer and the judge determines which one is human and which one is a computer. If the judge is wrong about the computer then it is said that it is an intelligent machine not a human machine. A test to test intelligence of machines.

5. Be able to differentiate between the four ideas concerning the will determinism that we discussed in class. (i.e. Hard and soft determinism, indeterminism, and libertarianism)

Hard Determinism: everything is cause and effect our behavior is part of that cause and effect. Choice is an illusion because the past was determined by previous events

Indeterminism: uncaused effects - not all events that happen have a cause. We have freedom but it’s not us making the choices. Happen by chance and are random. Ex.) scratch offs

Libertarianism: free will. We are the cause and we have the final choice. We can choose to interfere and make things different. We are morally responsible

Soft Determinism/Compatibilism: compatible with free-will and determinism. Desires, choices, and decisions are determining actions. It’s your decision even though it was already determined. Freedom doesn’t require real choices just the illusion of choice. Action is determined but still free. Ex.) Candy Mountain.

6. Know what the problem of foreknowledge and future free-will choices is. Also know how it might be solved.

If God knows what we are going to do, then we are going to do that. We have no choice but to do it because it is already planned by him. God is making us do it and we are freely choosing to do it. It is fixed and cannot be changed.

Solved: God’s knowledge isn’t what makes you do it, the thing that you do is reflecting on God’s knowledge. You can dictate what you want to do and God knows that.

7. Know the difference between the A (tensed) and B (tenseless) theories of time.

A (tensed) Theory - past, present, and future are absolute terms and there is already one. Only the present exists. Past already existed but the future hasn’t so there are many different possibilities for it.

B (tenseless) Theory - past, present, and future are relative terms and they all exist at the same time. Relative to where you are at at that time that you consider your past, present, and future. In the past your younger self is your present self at that time. For your kindergarten self, 2020 is the future for you but for here it is the past for us. Past and future have one possibility ( like a movie)

8. Know how each theory of time impacts the problem of foreknowledge and free-will choices.

A-Theory: there are many possible futures but God knows the real future and what’s going to really happen.

B-Theory: there is only one possible future which is the actual future and is the most accurate one.

We don’t choose because God knows, God knows because our future self picked it. Imagine God having a movie of your life, he knows your future because of the movie already made.

9. Understand the idea of middle knowledge and how it relates to the free-will foreknowledge paradox

Middle Knowledge is in the middle of natural (necessary) knowledge and free (contingent) knowledge. God knows what you would freely do if you were put in a certain situation. God sets a situation up to where you freely do a choice.

10. Know about the grounding objection to middle knowledge.

The problem with grounding objection is that they infer to futures that haven’t happened. Middle knowledge is the knowledge of a future that will never happen. God isn’t guessing, God knows. If it is with God, then our actions would be determined by God.

Know what the definition of, and differences between, Dualism, Reductionism, Eliminativism, Emergence, and Functionalism.

Dualism - This philosophy states that the mental can exist outside of the body, and the body cannot think. Things change inside you but you still remain you. Even if your body was changed dramatically, you personality could stay the same.

Reductionism - Our states of mind are states of the brain. You are happy because happy neurons are firing

Eliminativism - states of mind do not correspond to certain brain states. “ I believe I am reading” - doesn’t exists as a particular brain state so that belief doesn’t exist. Feelings as brain states do not exist.

Emergence - Interactions of neurons in the brain cause consciousness to emerge into existence (together)

Functionalism - consciousness does not emerge from brain function, it is simply a brain function (separate). Mental states can be produced by any complex system not just brains - possibility for AI

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