Begrippenlijst philosophy

mind-body problem

wat de relatie is tussen de mental realm en physical realm

mental realm

gedachten, emoties, ervaringen en subjectieve belevingen

physical realm

materiële dingen en natuurwetenschappelijke processen, zoals lichaam en hersenen en atomen

substance dualism

descartes opvatting dat mind en lichaam twee verschillende substanties zijn: immaterieel vs materieel

property dualism

er is 1 fysieke substantie (brein/lichaam), maar deze substantie heeft verschillende properties (eigenschappen): fysiek en mentaal. mind is wel een property van brain, maar. mind ≠ brain

predicate dualism

mental en physical realm zijn verschillende termen dus hebben verschillende betekenissen

Cartesian Dualism

mind = res cogitates, a thinking thing & body = res extensa, an extended thing (into the world) —> radical doubt: you can doubt the existence of your body, but not your own thinking, because doubting is a form of thinking. X = Y only when they share all properties, and they don’t so mind and body can’t be the same thing!

the interaction problem (Elizabeth)

criticism on Descartes —> if the mind is immaterial, it can’t have direct contact with body - then how can there be any (causal) relations between the two? - she sees mind-body as morning & evening star example

ontological questions

what really exists?

epistemological questions

what can we know and how can we know it?

mental and physical realm in property dualism

like brain-body dualism: they are different properties of physical things

access consciousness

state directly available to you to drive your actions, speech, thoughts - an actual brain state may play this role, accessible from 3rd-person view, non trivial p

phenomenal consciousness (qualia)

the subjective feeling or what’s it like to be in particular state, only 1st-person perspective

property dualists and consciousness

consciousness can’t be fully explained by physical laws

knowledge argument

Mary lives in a black-white room, she knows everything about the brain - will she learn something new when leaving the black-white room? she doesn't know what it’s like to see red → so not all knowledge is physical, she would learn what it’s like to perceive red

easy problems (predict buying behavior, detecting surprise by time measurements in infants)

accessible to 3rd-person POV, you can study them with physical measures

hard problem (raised by knowledge argument)

explaining subjective experience, we need to explain why brain processing leads to conscious experience - hard problem because it requires acces to 1st-person POV

psychological (methodological) behaviorism

studying behavior instead of the mind, so investigate stimulus → behavior instead of stimulus → mind → behavior