Phil 340 - Exam 1

Exam 1

Dualism

Mind and body are fundamentally distinct kinds of substance & each can exist independently from the other

Reductionism

states and processes of the mind are identical

Realization

A mental state or process could be realized by many different physical states or processes

Phenomenal Consciousness

the subjective or qualitative feel experience; what “is it like” to be a certain kind of organism or to have a particular experience

Qualia

a name for “what it’s like” sensations

Akin’s experiment

a thought experiment in which the informational content of a bat’s sonar experiences is translated into a format that suits human perceptual capacities

Homunculus

an inner mind posited as part of a putative explanation for some mental phenomenon - a bad way of explaining mental phenomena

Flicker Hypothesis

AI agents are associated with momentary, temporary flickers of conscious experience, each of which is disconnected from the others

Shoggoth Hypothesis

There is a persisting, hidden, conscious subject underlying the AI agents that humans interact with, but the conscious subject is nothing like surface-level agents.

Validity

• an argument is valid when all the premises are true, conclusion is true

• valid doesn’t equal true

Soundness

• An argument is sound if it is valid & all of its premises are true

• a valid argument can still be unsound

Modus Ponens

If P —> Q
P
Therefore, Q

Modus Tollens

If P —> Q
Not Q
Therefore, not P

Hypothetical Syllogism

If P —> Q
If Q —> R
Therefore P
(think P —> Q —> R)

Disjunctive Syllogism

P or Q
Not P
Therefore Q

Persisting interlocutor illusion

the illusion that an AI agent actually has a persistent, continuing presence in space and time of the same kind as humans and other organisms

Psychological continuity of personal identity

What makes you the same person over some period of time is a sufficient degree of psychological relatedness

the Teletransporter thought experiment

a thought experiment for testing your intuitions about what makes a person with a mind the same person over time

the gaming problem

LLMs are incentivized to mimic exactly the kinds of output that human users associate with consciousness, regardless of whether they are conscious or not

Global workspace hypothesis

A theory of consciousness according to which conscious states are states that are broadcast from a central or global workspace to a host of subsystems.

Evil demon thought experiment

The idea is that you might be mistaken about every single one of the beliefs delivered to you by your sensory/perceptual abilities

I think, therefore I am / When I am thinking I exist

Descartes’ proof that he exists is that if one can be deceived, one is a thinking subject, so even under conditions of maximal deception, one can be certain that one exists and is thinking.

The theological objection

only things that God gives an immortal soul can think and God does not give immortal souls to machines, so machines can’t think

the ‘Heads in the Sand’ objection

it would be dreadful if machines could think, therefore they can’t

the argument from consciousness

no machine can ever have conscious experiences so no machine can think

the arguments from various ‘disabilities”

A machine cannot/could not ever do X, so machines cannot think

Lady Lovelace’s objection

a machine can never take us by surprise, so it cannot think

intentionality

refers to the idea of context, representational content

intentional stance

it is neutral on the internal mechanisms producing the behavior

6 claims of embodied cognition

1. Cognition is situated

2. Cognition is time-pressured

3. We offload cognitive work onto the environment

4. The environment is part of the cognitive system

5. Cognition is for action

6. Off-line cognition is body-based

Sufficient AND Necessary condition statement

if and only if

Necessary condition statement

only if

sufficient condition statement

if and then

P is a necessary condition for Q

• If Q, then P

• Q only if P

• Q is a sufficient condition for P

P is a sufficient condition for Q

• If P, then Q

• P only if Q

• Q is a necessary condition for P

A is a sufficient condition for B

If A, then B —> A only if B

A is a necessary condition for B

If B, then A —> B only if A

“must be in place”

P is a necessary & sufficient condition for Q

• P if and only if Q

• Q if and only P

• Q is a necessary and sufficient condition for P