Phil 340

The first midterm exam will cover some of the following key concepts and terms, drawn from

readings and lectures:

Important definitions:

• Necessary condition

• Sufficient condition

• Validity

• Soundness

• Difference in degree vs difference in kind

Concepts from Week 2:

• Turing Machine – basic idea

• The Imitation Game

• “Can a machine think?”

• Turing’s responses to counter arguments

o The Theological Objection

o The “Heads in the Sand” Objection

o The Argument from Consciousness

o The Arguments from Various Disabilities

o Lovelace’s Objection

• ELIZA

Concepts from Week 3:

• The Mind-Body Problem and its Solutions

o Reductionist Physicalism

o Multiple Realizability

o Dualism

• Phenomenal consciousness

• “What is it like to be a bat?” – Thomas Nagel

• 3-D movie theatre thought experiment – Kathleen Akins

Concepts from Week 4:

• Qualia

• Homunculus

• Persisting interlocutor illusion

• Perceptual illusions

• Psychological continuity theory of personal identity

• Teletransporter thought experiment

• Flicker hypothesis

• Shoggoth hypothesis

• The gaming problem

• Global workspace hypothesisConcepts from Week 5:

• Evil Demon thought experiment – Renee Descartes

• “when I think, I exist” – Renee Descartes

• Pineal gland

• Thinking substance vs extended substance

• How does the immaterial mind move the material body? – Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia

• Embodied Cognition

The exam will also require you to use the following skills:

• Identifying Necessary and/or Sufficient Condition Definitions

• Identifying Valid, Invalid, Sound, and Unsound Arguments

• Creating Sound Arguments from Texts

• Constructing Counter-Arguments

The following definitions will be provided on the exam for reference:

Modus Ponens (Affirming the Antecedent)

P1. If P, then Q

P2. P

C. Therefore, Q

Modus Tollens (Denying the Consequent)

P1. If P, then Q

P2. Not Q

C. Therefore, not P

Hypothetical Syllogism (Chain Reasoning)

P1. If P, then Q

P2. If Q, then R

C. Therefore, if P, then R

Disjunctive Syllogism (Either/Or)

P1. Either P or Q

P2. Not P

C. Therefore, Q