PHIL340 MIDTERM

displacement

A design feature of language identified by Charles Hockett; it allows communication about things not immediately present in space, time, actuality, or personal perspective.

spatial displacement

The ability to communicate about things not physically present or located in the here-and-now environment.

temporal displacement

The ability to communicate about things not occurring at the present moment, such as past or future events.

modal displacement

The ability to communicate about things not actual, such as hypothetical, imagined, or fictional scenarios.

personal displacement

The ability to communicate indirectly about oneself or others, enabling perspective-taking and self-reference.

Charles Hockett

Linguist (1916–2000) who outlined design features of human language, including displacement, distinguishing human communication from other animals.

Turing machine

A theoretical device invented by Alan Turing consisting of an infinite tape, a set of rules, and a read/write head, used to define the concept of computation.

basic features of a Turing machine

Consists of a tape with symbols, a set of states, a head that reads/writes symbols, and transition rules that determine actions based on current state and symbol.

rule-based symbol manipulation

A process by which a system follows explicit formal rules to manipulate symbols; foundational idea for symbolic AI.

symbolic AI

An approach to artificial intelligence that represents knowledge as symbols and applies rules of logic to perform reasoning and problem-solving.

necessary condition

A requirement that must be satisfied for a statement to be true; if the condition is not met, the statement cannot hold.

sufficient condition

A condition that, if satisfied, guarantees the truth of a statement, though it may not be necessary.

the Turing test

Alan Turing’s test of machine intelligence; if a machine can imitate a human in conversation such that an interrogator cannot reliably distinguish them, it is considered intelligent.

Alan Turing

Mathematician and father of computer science; introduced Turing machines and the Turing test; posed the famous question “Can machines think?”

mind vs brain

Distinction between the immaterial mind (thoughts, consciousness, experience) and the material brain (neural processes, biology).

mind-body problem

The philosophical problem of explaining how immaterial mind and consciousness arise from physical matter and brain processes.

embodiment

The theory that cognition depends on the body’s sensorimotor interaction with the environment; cognition is shaped by lived, embodied experience.

Varela, Thompson, and Rosch on embodiment

Claimed cognition depends on having a body with sensorimotor capacities, showing thought cannot be separated from embodiment.

the symbol grounding problem

The challenge of how symbols (words, tokens, representations) gain meaning rather than being manipulated without understanding; central in AI and philosophy of language.

Winograd schemas

Tests of language understanding that require background knowledge to resolve ambiguity (e.g., “The city councilors refused the demonstrators a permit because they feared violence” vs. “because they advocated violence”).

roles of knowledge in language interpretation

Language interpretation requires context and background knowledge beyond syntax, as shown in Winograd schemas and AI failures.

neural nets

Computational models inspired by the brain, consisting of layers of nodes (“neurons”) connected by weighted edges that process and transform input data.

transformer architecture

A neural network architecture using attention mechanisms to focus on relevant parts of input; crucial to modern large language models like GPT.

sentience

The capacity to have subjective, conscious experience; the ability to feel or perceive subjectively.

subjective experience

The qualitative, first-person perspective of being; the “what it’s like” of consciousness.

Thomas Nagel’s “what it’s like”

Phrase used to highlight subjective consciousness (e.g., what it is like to be a bat), distinguishing it from objective descriptions.

syntax

The formal rules governing the arrangement of words into grammatically valid sentences.

semantics

The literal meaning of linguistic expressions, what words and sentences refer to.

pragmatics

The study of how meaning is shaped by context, speaker intention, and usage beyond literal meaning.

compositionality

Principle that the meaning of a complex expression is determined by the meanings of its parts and their syntactic structure.

language and commitment

Using language involves making commitments (to truth, shared understanding, obligations), not just exchanging predictions.

commitment vs prediction

Commitment is about obligations and responsibilities made in communication; prediction is about anticipating future outcomes without obligation.

externalism

The view that meanings and thoughts depend partly on factors outside the individual, including environment and social context.

physical externalism

Meaning and thought depend on interaction with the physical world; e.g., “water” on Earth is H2O, while on Twin Earth it is XYZ.

social externalism

Meaning and thought depend on social practices, institutions, and linguistic communities.

public meaning

The socially shared meaning of terms; prevents purely private definitions from being valid.

Twin Earth thought experiment

Hilary Putnam’s scenario where “water” on Earth = H2O and on Twin Earth = XYZ, showing meaning depends on environment and not just internal states.

Hilary Putnam

Philosopher who argued for semantic externalism and devised the Twin Earth thought experiment.

Dennett’s stances

Framework of three explanatory perspectives: physical stance, design stance, and intentional stance, for predicting and explaining system behavior.

physical stance

Predicting behavior using physical laws (e.g., predicting where a rock will fall).

design stance

Predicting behavior by assuming something works as designed to perform a function (e.g., a clock tells time).

intentional stance

Predicting behavior by attributing beliefs, desires, and goals (e.g., assuming a chess computer “wants to win”).

Daniel Dennett

Philosopher of mind who developed the theory of stances and analyzed intentionality and consciousness.

forms of life

Wittgenstein’s concept that language is embedded in social practices, activities, and shared ways of living.

Wittgenstein’s quote “to imagine a language is to imagine a form of life”

Suggests language and meaning are inseparable from human practices and forms of life.

Wittgenstein’s quote on agreement

“If language is to be a means of communication there must be agreement not only in definitions but also in judgments,” highlighting shared standards for meaning.

Wittgenstein on measuring

Claimed measuring must be repeatable, reproducible by others, and correctable, illustrating the need for public standards.

collective action problem

A situation where individuals acting in self-interest undermine group benefits, requiring norms, institutions, or cooperation to solve (e.g., prisoner’s dilemma).

prisoner’s dilemma

A game-theory model where two rational individuals each have incentives to betray, but both are better off cooperating.

Elinor Ostrom

Political economist who showed groups can self-organize to govern shared resources and overcome collective action problems.

Ostrom’s Governing the Commons

Book analyzing how communities solve resource problems; emphasized institutions, norms, and self-governance.

empiricism

The philosophical thesis that knowledge comes primarily from sensory experience.

rationalism

The thesis that some knowledge is independent of experience (a priori) and comes through reason.

behaviorism

The psychological view that only observable behavior, not inner mental states, should be studied scientifically.

computationalism

The view that the mind functions as a computational system, processing information via representations and algorithms.

compositionality in language

The principle that meanings of larger structures depend systematically on meanings of parts and rules of composition.

Noam Chomsky

Linguist who argued humans have an innate universal grammar; distinguished between syntax and semantics.

Chomsky’s “Colorless green ideas sleep furiously”

A sentence that is syntactically correct but semantically nonsensical, showing syntax and semantics are distinct.

Humpty Dumpty’s claim about meaning

“When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean,” rejected as neglecting public meaning.

Lewis Carroll’s critique

Carroll highlighted the absurdity of private meaning, reinforcing that words gain meaning through communal use.

Herbert Simon on AI

Claimed that by inventing computer programs, humans solved the mind-body problem by showing how matter can instantiate mind-like properties.

John McCarthy on AI

Defined intelligence as “the computational part of the ability to achieve goals in the world.”

Eric on simulation

Noted that simulations (e.g., of weather) may resemble processes but do not share all properties (simulated rain is not wet).

film “Be Right Back”

Black Mirror episode raising questions about personal identity, grief, and relationships with AI simulations.

film “Arrival”

Explores linguistic relativity, forms of life, externalism, and temporal displacement through communication with Heptapods.

film “Her”

Explores AI relationships, consciousness, commitment, and what it means to love or be loved by an AI.

Star Trek TNG “Darmok”

Illustrates challenges of communication across forms of life and grounding meaning in shared narrative.

language and narrative

Human intelligence relies on narrative for understanding time, memory, and identity.

time and intelligence

Human cognition is structured by temporal awareness, planning, and sequencing events.

stochastic parrots

Critique of large language models that they generate fluent but shallow text without true understanding, based on statistical pattern-matching.

Chinese Room argument

John Searle’s thought experiment arguing that rule-based symbol manipulation is insufficient for genuine understanding or consciousness.