Philosophy May 26: Behaviorism, Functionalism, and the Chinese Room
Comparison of Behaviorism and Functionalism
Behaviorism vs. the "Black Box": Behaviorism is characterized as a perspective that views the internal processes of the mind as a "black box." Proponents of behaviorism are primarily concerned with input and output because both are empirical and measurable. To a behaviorist, the internal "number jumble" or mental activity occurring between ears is considered irrelevant to the scientific study of behavior.
The Functionalist Critique: Functionalists object to the behaviorist view, arguing it is unreasonable to ignore the brain or consciousness. A functionalist views output as a result of a function, which in turn is a result of an input. However, they emphasize that the patterns within the system—such as neuronal activity in a brain or circuitry in a CPU—are also empirical and can be analyzed.
The Superiority of Functionalism: Functionalists claim superiority over behaviorists because they account for "functionality." This is compared to machines and mathematical operations where the internal process is vital. For example, in the communication between organisms, the signals and the multifaceted functions included in the brain represent a level of complexity that behaviorism ignores.
The Scope of Consciousness: A critique of functionalism is its "parochial" focus on the human brain as the sole platform for functions. The question is raised: why are we so attached to human brains or specific biological sexes as the required platform for consciousness?
The Problem of Embodiment and Biological Conditioning
The Embodied Mind: A major criticism in the late and early centuries is the idea that the mind is separate from the body. It is argued that consciousness is "embodied." For instance, visual consciousness often includes parts of one's own body, such as seeing one's fingers waving or the edge of a shoulder when turning the head.
Biological Influence on Mind: The state of the body directly conditions consciousness. The speaker provides a hypothetical scenario: if a person eats something bad and feels on the verge of throwing up, their consciousness is transformed into a state of "anguish" or intense feeling that is different from normal, energetic, or optimistic consciousness. This physical state makes it difficult to retain balance or focus on public speaking due to the body's influence.
The Turing Test and the Hilary Putnam Anecdote
Definition of the Turing Test: The Turing Test requires a human to chat virtually with an entity and guess with certainty whether they are speaking with a human or a bot. If the human cannot tell the difference, the machine passes the test.
Current AI Performance: The speaker suggests that the Turing Test is becoming obsolete because most modern AI can pass it with "flying colors." There is a humorous assertion that people might even guess humans are bots due to variations in human intelligence.
The Hilary Putnam "Turing Christ" Story: An anecdote is shared regarding Professor Hilary Putnam of Princeton University. He was scheduled to give a talk on the Turing Test. However, the posters for the event contained a typo and invited the audience to a talk on "Turing Christ."
Philosopher or Oboist Quiz: Mention is made of an online quiz titled "Philosopher or Oboist," where participants must distinguish between the names of philosophers and professional oboe players.
John Searle's Chinese Room Thought Experiment
The Setup: A person is placed in a room with two slots (input and output). They receive cards containing Chinese icons (symbols). The person does not speak or read Mandarin.
The Process: Inside the room, the person has a massive library of manuals containing procedural, actionable directions. When a card is received, the manual dictates which corresponding card to pull from the files and issue through the opposite slot.
The Result: From the outside, a Mandarin speaker might ask a question like "Who is your favorite actor?" and receive the correct answer "Emma Watson." To the observer, the system appears to understand Mandarin. However, the person inside has no understanding of the question, the answer, or the rationale; they are merely following a text-based protocol.
Intentionality: Intrinsic vs. Derived
Definition of Intentionality: This refers to the "aboutness" of mental states. The speaker references Franz Brentano’s term "In-existence" (), describing how thoughts, abstract ideas, and axioms "in-exist" within our consciousness.
The Parrot and the Modem Example: * The speaker recounts seeing a parrot that lived near a computer modem in the era of dinosaur-speed technology (e.g., a modem speed of ). * The parrot learned to mimic the sound of the modem exactly. * The parrot also learned to say "Cheers." * John Searle would argue that the parrot is not "intrinsically" greeting anyone. It does not understand the social concept of a greeting; it is just mimicking a sound. The intention is not genuine in the human-to-human sense.
Human "Autopilot": It is noted that humans often operate on "autopilot" of the time, exchanging platitudes like "How's it going?" and "Good, how are you?" without deep intrinsic intentionality, though humans retain the capacity for genuine, meaningful interaction.
Sufficient and Necessary Conditions
Sufficient Conditions: This refers to the total set of factors that must come together for a phenomenon to occur. * Buying Alcohol Example: To purchase alcohol on the island, sufficient conditions include being a human being, being alive, being physically present in the store, being at least years old, and having money (cash or electronic). * University Admission Example: Sufficient conditions include being a human, being alive, applying to the school, and passing high school.
Necessary Conditions: These are specific requirements that, if missing, prevent the outcome. For example, being over is a necessary condition for buying alcohol; without it, the purchase cannot legally happen.
Emergent Properties
Definition: An emergent property is a phenomenon that "rides on top" of sufficient conditions. It is caused by those conditions but manifests as a new state.
Boiling Water: Once a sufficient amount of energy is applied to water, "boiling" occurs as an emergent property.
Jet Planes: Flight (taking off) is an emergent property resulting from aerodynamic shape, sufficient thrust, and technical planning.
Consciousness: Searle and others suggest consciousness and intentionality are emergent properties of the biological evolution of the brain. When the biological "platform" reached a sufficient level of complexity, humanity was "lifted off" into the realms of language, philosophy, and art.
Einstein’s Thought Experiment on Simultaneity
The Train Scenario: Einstein proposed a thought experiment involving a train moving at extreme velocity. Lightning bolts strike the front and back of the train.
The Conclusion: Whether the strikes are simultaneous depends on the perspective of the observer. A person on the train moving toward the front bolt and away from the back bolt will perceive them differently than a stationary observer. This demonstrates that there is no "absolute simultaneity"; it is a "geometric illusion."
Thought Experiments in Philosophy: These experiments (like Einstein’s or Searle’s) are used when real physical experiments are impossible (e.g., we cannot simulate the speed of light or create a perfect Chinese Room) to resolve concepts conceptually.
Summary of Subjective Experience
Species Bias: The lecture concludes by touching on "species-subjective" bias.
Nagel's Bat: The speaker mentions Thomas Nagel's question: "What is it like to be a bat?" The conclusion is that even if a human were deprived of vision, they would be experiencing the world as a human without sight, not as a bat. The true subjective experience of another species remains a limit of our imagination.