June 5: Philosophy of Mind
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To do for next class - 1) Read pp. 405-423 2) Will computers ever be intelligent? Why, why not? 3) Final papers are due. 4) Final exam worth 15%. |
To do for next class - Nothing! |
Introduction
Philosophy of mind dates back to Anaxagoras, the first philosopher to posit the existence of minds as opposed to just matter. Those after him, including Plato and Aristotle concerned themselves partially with understanding how mind and matter interacted and provided us with the powers of reason. Aristotle thought minds were dependent on bodies for their existence, while Plato believed they were independent entities which travel through the plane of forms before their return to earth. These were the beginnings of perhaps the most long-lived question in philosophy of mind: What is the relation between mind and body? Philosophy of mind spans beyond this one (metaphysical) question, however. It also includes philosophy of psychology (phil of sci concerned with models, methods, explns etc) and philosophical psychology (concerned with folk psychology - memory, belief, desire, sensation, etc), and more recently, cognitive science (it is one of ~6 disciplines).
In cognitive science, philosophers are concerned with methodological questions as well as contributing conceptual analyses and theoretical direction. In this role, some philosophers are concerned with philosophy of computation and the nature and role of representations.
Take a look at the Dictionary of Philosophy of Mind, if you're interested in more info (which I edit).
Do you think there is a difference between the physical and the mental? What sorts of relations exist between these two? Can the mental cause the physical, and vice versa? (epiphenomenalism (intentionality? still posits minds); anomalous monism; parallelism (preestablished harmony))
What possible relations can you think of between mind and body? (dualism, monism (Spinoza, dual aspect theory, materialism, idealism, parallelism). Should the mind be any substance (either mental or physical)? If not, what could it be? (capacities) Do religions align with these various doctrines?
Which philosophers would probably hold which doctrines? (Descartes - two kinds of substance; minds don't have spatial properties)
What do Sacks' cases make us think about the relation between mind and body? Can these examples help constrain our philosophizing (this is how cognitive science arose)?
What do you think the relation between minds and bodies is?
What is the Turing test? (Who was Alan Turing, complete/partial test, current success/competitions, what about Big Blue?, would this be a good test for sex?, is intelligence like sex?)
What's the difference between a simulated hurricane and a real hurricane (what about calculations)? How does this relate to intelligence?
Can computers have emotions? Would they have to in order to be intelligent? (Damasio).
What counts as a computer? What is computation? (symbolicism, connectionism, classicism).
Nothing!