Lecture 2 - Idealism and Behaviorism (copy)

Occasionalism

God is the true cause of events.

• My thoughts causes me to act.

• Mental states cause physical events.

Occasionalism main idea

Every thought of mine is an occasion for God to perform the act.

• You have the thought, God intervenes and makes you do the act.

  • God is mediator between mental state and physical world.

What is Parallelism?

There are two parallel series of events: mental and physical.

• They run in sync as if they were two clocks that were made to run on the same time and same way.

What is the problem that Occasionalism and Parallelism face?

How does God do it?

• One problem (how do mind and body interact) is merely replaced by another problem (how does God intervene).

Idealism

Idealism defends a form of monism.

Berkeley’s Monism

Everything is mental.

Berkeley on the interaction problem

There is no interaction, because there is only mind.

• There is no material substance.

Why did Berkeley defend monaism?

Empiricism

Knowledge comes from sensory experience (eg. observation).W

What is Berkeley?

Empiricist.

What is observable?

Substances are not observable, but properties are.

According to John Locke, we can make two distinctions in properties. What are those?

1. Primary properties: are independent from an observer (ex. temperature, position, size).

2. Secondary properties: are not independent from an observer (ex. warm or cold, taste).

Berkeley vs John Locke

Berkeley says no to John Locke. Everything depends on the mind to be perceived.

Are colours primary or secondary properties?

Colours as primary = perceived as different wavelengths (but this is wrong).

Colours as secondary = we need our mind to see colour.

What is Berkeley’s error?

Whether something is big or small does depend on the observer, BUT its height does not (you can measure it).

• Temperature is also independent of any observer.

Berkeley on the existence of the physical world.

The existence of the physical world depends on the existence of a mind: the physical world cannot work without the mind.

• What happens if there is no observer?

  • Berkeley needs God to stop the physical world from disappearing.

How did Behaviorism emerge?

If psychology is to be scientific, we cannot rely on non-observable mental input.

What are the two versions of behaviorism?

1. Philosophical

2. Psychological

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Who argued against dualism?

Gilbert Ryle; for Descartes, animals are mindless machines. This is not the case with human beings but no one can observe your mind but yourself. If this is so, then we cannot establish whether anyone (animal or human) has a mind.

• Attributing a mind to someone does not explain anything.

What is the pseudo-problem

Asking where the mind is or what it is independently of our behavior.

What is a disposition?

A behavioural pattern that something displays under certain circumstances.