IB Philosophy SL Exam - CONSCIOUSNESS

consciousness

"subjective experience" or "what it is like”; something that it’s like to be that organism

essential property

a property which that thing is bound to have, a property it cannot lack

extension

taking up space

Cartesian dualism

minds and bodies are different substances bc we can conceive them as separate so it is illogical to think of them separately and bodies are divisible

material

the view that everything in reality is composed of matter and that all phenomena, including mental states and consciousness, arise from material interactions

immaterial

what we perceive as the physical world exists only in the mind, and there is no independent physical reality

category mistake

occurs when a statement or concept is incorrectly applied to a category it doesn't belong to

Ghost in the machine

Ryle, physicalist body is a machine, making fun of Descartes; ghost=soul

physicalism

the theory that everything is made up of physical stuff, including minds

behaviorism

the theory that the mind is simply the physical events we call behavior

mind-brain identity theory

mental states like the feelings of anger are just processes that occur in the brain

functionalism

mind is a computational process that conceivably, could be performed by non-brain stuff (machinery)

the Turing Test

thought experiment, when are computers conscious? if a computer can’t be detected as a computer then it’s conscious; behaviorist view

hard problem of consciousness

it questions if physical explanations can fully account for the existence and nature of subjective experience

Chinese room thought experiment

a person inside a room who follows English instructions to manipulate Chinese symbols, producing responses that seem fluent to outside observers. Even though the person can simulate understanding Chinese, they don’t actually understand it—they’re just following rules.

Mary’s room thought experiment

Mary is a brilliant scientist who knows everything about color vision from a scientific, physical perspective, but she has lived her whole life in a black-and-white room. When she finally sees color (like red) for the first time, she learns something new—what it's like to see red.