3. history

Basic Philosophical Concepts

Ontology

• Concerns: What is the universe in reality?

• Early materialist view: All things are collections of atoms.

• Different ontological perspectives:

  • Monism: All is one substance.

  • Dualism: Reality consists of two fundamentally different substances.

  • Pluralism: Reality is composed of many substances.

Epistemology

• Definition: The study of knowledge and experience.

• Central questions:

  • What do we know?

  • What can we know?

  • How do we know if it's true?

• Importance: Knowledge may not reflect true reality due to constant change.

• Two major epistemological positions:

  • Rationalism: Knowledge through reasoning.

  • Empiricism: Knowledge through observation and experience.

Related Concepts

Reductionism:

• Definition: Explaining higher-level phenomena by reducing them to simpler components.

Appearance vs. Reality

• Optical illusions show that perception (proximal stimulus) differs from the actual object (distal stimulus).

• Helmholtz's contribution:

  • Distal stimulus: The actual object.

  • Proximal stimulus: Sensory representation.

The Mind-Body Problem

• Four propositions:

  1. The mind is nonphysical.

  2. The body is physical.

  3. The mind and body interact.

  4. Physical and nonphysical things cannot interact.

• Inconsistent tetrad: All four cannot be true at once.

• Example: Seeing coffee involves mental experience, physical vision, and subjective awareness (quale/qualia).

Descartes’ Interactionism (Substance Dualism)

• René Descartes framed the modern mind-body problem.

• Arguments:

  • The mind is conscious and nonspatial.

  • The body is spatial.

  • Mind and body interact.

• Pineal gland: Descartes proposed interaction occurs here.

Forms of Dualism

Substance Dualism (R. Descartes)

• The mind and body are different substances.

Interactionist Substance Dualism:

• Mind and body causally affect each other.

Psychophysical Dualist Interactionism (E.J. Lowe)

• The mind interacts with the whole brain.

• Criticism: Doesn't explain interaction with the entire brain.

• Pairing problem: How does one mind affect its body consistently?

Property Dualism (T. Nagel and D. Chalmers)

• Mind and body are the same substance with different properties.

• Mental properties are grounded in physical structures.

Parallelism (G. Leibniz)

• The mind and body are distinct and do not interact; only correlation.

• Gottfried Leibniz: Synchronized by God.

• Occasionalism: Events in the body are occasions for God to create corresponding mental events.

Scientific and Philosophical Objections to Interactionist Dualism

Conservation Laws (Physics)

• Energy/mass remains constant in a closed system ( E = mc^2 ).

• Supports physicalism or parallelism.

Other Theories of Mind

Epiphenomenalism

• The mind is a by-product of physical processes; mental events lack causal power.

Emergentism

• The mind emerges from physical processes with new properties (supervenience).

Physicalism and Behaviorism

Four Forms of Behaviorism

• The mind doesn't exist; behavior is the object of study.

• Mental states are behavioral dispositions.

• Criticism: Ignores qualia.

Wittgenstein's Private Language Argument

• A truly private language for sensations is impossible.

Identity Theory:

• The mind is identical to the brain.

• Central State Materialism: the mind is the brain.

• Two forms:

  • Type identity: Mental states are brain states.

  • Token identity: Each mental event is a brain event.

Functionalism (physicalism)

• Mental states are computational states (software vs. hardware).

• Multiple realizability thesis: Mental states can be realized in different systems.

• Faces the 'missing qualia problem'.

Eliminative Materialism (Physicalism)

• Rejects mental states; folk psychology is false.

• No need for mentalistic vocabulary in neuroscience.

Alternative Metaphysical Views

1 - Idealism

• Everything is fundamentally mental or spiritual.

• Opposes physicalism.

2 - Phenomenalism

• Physical objects are sensory experiences.

3 - Double Aspect Theory (Spinoza)

• Mind and body are two aspects of the same substance.

• Qualia cannot be reduced.

4 - Panpsychism and Panprotopsychism

• Consciousness is a fundamental aspect of the universe.

• Panprot