Philosophic Themes in Film Midterm

argument

a set of reasons that are given to back up or justify some statement

creative thinking

a quality involved in writing thought experiments in films

critical thinker

someone open to examining their own beliefs and the reasons that they have for holding them

principle of universal causation (PUC)

the thesis that every event has a cause that fully determines it

determinism

states that because the PUC is true, and because human actions are part of the universe, human actions are fully determined by preceding events

free_L

an act made from more than one possible option that the person could take, from one and the same exact set of causal factors

libertarianism

the view that some human actions are free_L, namely, those actions that a person could have chosen to do otherwise

indeterminists

a libertarian that rejects the PUC and claim that free_L actions occur without any (determining) cause

agent causation

when a person chooses to do one thing rather than another, the person—the agent—is the sole cause of the resulting action; caused by the agent and not by other events

event causation

the causes and events that result from the PUC, by which events are caused by other events

free_C

an action that results from a person’s beliefs and desires; an action is not free_C when it’s the result of external force or compulsion

compatibilist

believes that both the PUC and free will_C are true (libertarians and determinists are incompatibilists)

Paul Henri-Thiry, Baron d’Holbach

determinism; PUC; believes that everything in nature is physical, and physical things move and change as a result of other physical things affecting them

Pierre Laplace

PUC; Laplace’s demon

Laplace’s demon

a hypothetical entity that has complete knowledge of the deterministic causal laws; if such a demon had knowledge of the complete state of the universe at a given time, and if the demon has unlimited calculating ability, the demon would be able to predict with perfect accuracy everything that would happen thereafter

Patricia Smith Churchland

determinism; says there can still be self-control because each choice is “mediated by pathways in the prefrontal cortex, shaped by structures regulating emotions and drives, and it matures as the organism develops”

eliminativist

Sam Harris

determinism; says that paying attention to your stream of consciousness reveals that although it might feel to you on the inside that you could have made a different choice, that feeling is mistaken

William James

indeterminism; time travel thought experiment; asserts a choice is free_L when it happens by chance because what happens by mere chance “may also fall out otherwise;” says the parts of the universe have a certain amount of loose play on one another, so that the laying down of one of them does not necessarily determine what the others shall be

Roderick Chisholm

libertarianism; agent and event causation; says that although there is a chain of causal interactions flowing from a person’s past, the events in that series are not what cause that person to select a particular course of action from among other possible courses, rather, the action is caused by that person—the agent—and, as such, the person could have initiated a different action, instead

W. T. Stace

compatibilism; maintains that neither determinism nor libertarianism can adequately account for moral responsibility; claims that the compatibilist provides the better interpretation of free will as free will_C because it’s consistent with the way that the terms free and unfree are used in everyday language

Harry Frankfurt

compatilibilism; first-order and second-order desires; behaviors that are both the result of a person’s desires and yet also compelled (compulsive/addictive)

first-order desires

desires for particular things or states of affairs

second-order desires

desires to have a particular desire

philosophy of mind

the sub-area of philosophy that explores the nature of the mind, the psychological states that are typically attributed to it like beliefs/desires/emotions/thoughts/consciousness, and whether minds exist

psyche

was typically interpreted to mean life or soul and was taken to refer to whatever it is that makes a living thing living

Thales

first western philosopher; claimed that magnets were living—and so ensouled—because when a magnet is placed next to a piece of metal, it appears to initiate its own movement towards the metal

Pythagoras

maintains that souls continue to exist after the death of the body and transmigrate from one body to another

Plato

maintains that reasoning occurs in the soul, so psyche is not only the soul—it is also the mind; believed that the soul/mind is nonphysical and survives the death of the physical body

dualism

the view that each human being has a nonphysical mind that is distinct from their physical body

Renee Descartes

dualism; argues that because he can raise at least a bit of doubt that he has a body but cannot doubt that he has a mind, there must be at least one difference between the body and mind, and as different things cannot be one and the same thing, the body is distinct from the mind (sixth meditation); defends dualism by saying the mind gets the pineal gland to get the body to do something

Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia

physicalism; the problem of mind−body interaction; questions how a nonphysical desire cause the physical body to react; suggests the soul/mind is physical

the problem of mind-body interaction

the problem of explaining how a nonphysical mind or mental state can cause the physical body to move or react

physicalism

the view that humans are made up of only physical stuff, and that everything that humans do can be explained by the way that the physical body works and interacts with the physical world; mental states—like feelings, desires, thoughts, and voluntary actions—can all be explained in terms of brain activity and the electrochemical signals that neurons receive from and transmit to other neurons

Phineas Gage

a man who suffered a brain injury while at work which impacted his personality/demeanor; used to defend physicalism

mind−brain identity theory

camp of physicalism that says the mind just is the brain, and mind states (like beliefs, emotions, and thoughts) are identical to brain states (like neuron transmission and reception); believes terms like belief, mind, and desire are acceptable

eliminative materialism (eliminativism)

camp of physicalism that says a good scientific theory ought not to include things that do not exist and, because minds do not exist, we should eliminate them from any serious theory of the brain and the way that it works

Paul Churchland

eliminativism; argue that any theory that appeals to minds and mind states (like thoughts and beliefs) should be dismissed as mere folk psychology; provides the example of phlogiston, which—though nonexistent—was believed to cause rust

Frank Jackson

dualism; What Mary Didn’t Know thought experiment; argues it’s possible to show that someone who has a full and complete understanding of everything in the physical sciences could still lack some knowledge with respect to some mind state and thus, there is at least one mind state that cannot be explained by appeal to the physical brain and its activity, and so physicalism must be false

functionalism

the position that what makes something a mental state of a particular type depends on the role or function that the state plays in each organism or system and not on the internal constitution

Jerry Fodor

functionalism; concludes that if it is possible for martians and machines to have mental properties, then mental properties and neurophysiological processes cannot be identical

cognitive science

the interdisciplinary study that combines computer science, as well as psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, and philosophy to study the mind

David Chalmers

argues that no such reductive account —that all mental states can be fully explained in terms of physical stuff, only—will ever be able to fully explain consciousness by appeal to physical states and brain activity only

Heraclitus

maintains that everything is always changing and is in constant flux

John Locke

psychological continuity; recognized that, when asking questions about identity over time, we must keep in mind that the criterion which determines identity for a thing will differ, depending on how we describe that thing; distinguishes a human from a person

same-soul theory of personal identity

says a person is the same person as long as they have the same soul

psychological continuity theory of personal identity

says a person persists as the same person over time because they have a cluster of psychological properties that change very slowly in a continuous way

physical continuity theory of personal identity

says you are the same person that you were at birth because your physical body has existed and changed in a continuous way from then up until now

hybrid approach to psychological continuity

says either memory or continuation of a stream of consciousness may be used to establish identity

David Hume

argues that his introspection includes fleeting and changing perceptions, but it never reveals a self that has those experiences, and because a self is not something that can be perceived, any claim that there can be an inner subjective experience of the self or a feeling of identical self must be mistaken or illusory

artifical intelligence (AI)

the research area whose aim was to program computers so that they did things that, when done by humans, were thought to require intelligence

weak AI

AI that can only manipulate and process data

strong AI

AI that can manipulate and process data, but also understand what it’s processing

Alan Turing

the Turing test; held that conversational language fluency brought to bear so many skills and so much information that it could serve as the touchstone of intelligence

the Turing test (imitation game)

test whether a computer can fool a human interlocutor into thinking it’s human; intended to provide sufficient conditions for intelligence, but not necessary conditions

the problem of other minds

the problem that we can’t see inside anyone else’s head to see what’s happening and so we can’t observe anyone else’s beliefs, thoughts, or feelings

John Searle

Chinese room thought experiment; asserts strong AI would need to be not merely intelligent, but it must also be conscious and have an understanding of what it processes

Chinese room thought experiment

Searle’s example for why strong AI is impossible because no machine could ever have understanding

person

traditionally defined as the set of individuals whose well-being matters morally

sentience-based theory

says what distinguishes persons from nonpersons is the ability to experience pleasure and pain