Task 2 Flashcards
What is the “easy” question of consciousness?
It is about measuring physical properties of what we assume is correlated to consciousness etc.
What is the “hard” question of consciousness?
Why and how do consciousness and specific phenomenal experiences arise from the purely physical world of neural processes etc.?
If all our knowledge was just comprised of facts about physics etc., then the existence of phenomenal consciousness would be unexpected. How is this called in scientific terms?
Surprise Principle
What are two main concepts of mind?
Psychological & Phenomenal
What are the mind’s properties according to a psychological view?
- It is causal for behavior
- A state is mental if it explains behavior
- Takes a third-person perspective
- Refers to “what it does”
What is the phenomenal understanding of mind?
- Mental states are conscious experiences
- Takes a first-person view
- Interested in “how it feels”
How does Descartes think about psychological and phenomenal perspectives?
He argues, that everything psychological has some phenomenal dimension. Thus, there are no unconscious mental states according to him
How does Freud disagree with Descartes?
He argued, that there are many unconscious cognitive activities
How did behaviorism change the perspective on phenomenal vs psychological aspects?
According to a purely behaviorist view, phenomenal aspects of consciousness can be ignored or don’t even exist
What are some points of criticism against the “over-psychologization” of the 20th century?
- If mental states cause behavior but are also behavior themselves, what is the starting point?
- Some say that no mental state could be defined by a single range of behavioral dispositions, independent of other mental states
What is a general guideline in the debate of psychological vs phenomenal aspects?
Neither of the two should be defined away in terms of the other.
How can one determine for oneself, if something is primarily a psychological or phenomenal experience?
Asking oneself, if there could be a case of the experience without any phenomenal feeling
What kinds of mental phenomena are difficult to categorize in terms of psychological vs phenomenal?
Beliefs and other intentional states
Explain the two concepts of beliefs
Deflationary Concept: Beliefs are purely psychological
Inflationary Concept: Conscious phenomenal experience is required for a true belief
What is a philosophical zombie?
A being exactly equal (including reactions to stimuli and reports of feelings) to a human except that it doesn’t have phenomenal experience
