Exam 1 revision Flashcards
What is personal identity?
Personal identity is what makes you the same self over time? what defines you as you?
What is the philosophy of the mind?
What is the mind? what is the body? What is the relationship between the two?
How is time relevant in philosophy?
When space comes into existence so does time. These go hand in hand, nothing can happen unless ‘it’ is existing in space. time allows for the separation of events.
What is determinism?
The argument humans do not have followed and all things that occur, including our choices, are predetermined by earlier causes and factors. It believes that there are unchangeable physical laws that determine all outcomes
What is fatalism?
Fatalism does not deny free will. Fatalism argues there is only one outcome of your free choices just as you cannot change the past and everything you did in the past was free, equally you only have one outcome for all your future choices you just don’t have knowledge of them
What is the difference between fatalism and determinism?
determinism- All your choices and all things on earth are already determined
Fatalism- Only one outcome is predetermined and that is your fate, the choices you make a long the way are not.
how do Determinism and fatalism affect the concept of freewill?
determinism- you have no freewill, everything is already predetermined
fatalism- you have freewill to make choices a long the way of your life, your fate however is ‘sealed’
What is the problem of evil?
The problem of evil is that the judeo Christian god that is supposedly wholly good, omniscient, and omnipotent exists and yet evil still exists.
Who is Locke? what was his philosophy on personal identity and responsibility?
Locke believes that there is a self/person. Locke states that you are you as far back as your memories go. He believes that the man is the body that exists when you are not conscious, like asleep or drunk. His thoughts on responsibility are that you are only responsible for your conscious actions, not your unconscious ones.
What is Buddhism? how does it correlate to responsibilities and self/personal identity?
Buddhism rejects a non-changing self. It states that there is of course something which exists that people call by name, but it is always changing so it is not a single or unchanged thing. We are all different thoughts feelings emotions and physical processes. Example of this is the chariot like us is not one single thing but amalgamation of many things coming together to create something which does not have a single unchanging aspect to it. How Buddhism conveys responsibility it is as part of a casual chain not due to motivation or purpose of action. This means an action that was done for a non-immoral purpose like planting a mango tree is as responsible as the person that steals the mangos. The same Organism being yourself is connected to all actions throughout its existence.
What is Descartes dualism? explain- “i think therefore i am”
I think therefore i am means that you are able to doubt your body and anything in the physical world, but you cannot doubt your mind as you are using it you are thinking therefore you exist or at least your mind does however since you can doubt the existence of physical things, your mind is not physical.
What is Descartes dualism? explain- Quantitative and quantitative
What we define as the body and what we defined as the mind are experienced differently and are different. This argument points out how different the mind and body are the body exists in space we can point to it we can measure it, it is quantitative. The mind is qualitative and doesn’t exist in space, where is your memory of what happened last week in your brain? we speak of the qualities of the mind, a good idea, a loud noise, a bitter taste. We do not speak of the taste of a physical object we talk of the weight of brick we do not talk of an idea weighing 3 kilograms. This was the best argument for dualism the argument that there is a separate mind and body
What is the identity theory (materialism)? examples
Materialism is a broad term which argues that only a physical brain exists as the mind one such argument is the identity theory of the mind. the theory argues that the brain is the mind and even though it cannot be fully proven now future science will produce such proof. An example of this is how at one point we didn’t know lightning was just an electrical charge but now do due to science.
What is the theory of the Turing test (functionalism)?
What functions like a mind is a mind. the Turing test is a functional argument it argues that if you cannot separate a human from a machine in a conversation then that machine is functioning like it has a mind and is thinking.
Critics of the Chinese room (counter of the Turing test) and the Turing test?
Criticism of the Turing test is that it claims it proves a machine thinks yet Searles Chinese room counteracts this. It tries to show just responding in specific way such as in the Turing test does not prove understanding thinking entails understanding which soak claims is not proven by the Turing test criticism of the Chinese room however usually argues that even if the machine does not understand Chinese there is something like understanding occurring to it respect it in kind.
Qualia and Mary’s room- explain what it is
Mary’s room has several aspects to it at its basic purpose is to show materialism/physicalism like their identity theory cannot capture the what it’s like or qualia of the mind this means science can describe what your brain does when it has an experience but cannot explain how it feels to have that experience if a theory of the mind exists then it should explain how it actually feels what it is to have a conscious experience not just describe the behaviour from others or others brain activity.
Explain the chariot and the monk Nagasena
To illustrate the example a chariot is used. The chariot, like us is not one single thing, but an amalgamation of many things coming together. To create something which does not have a single unchanging aspect to it
Explain Nagasena’s analogy of responsibility and mangoes.
An action that was done for a non moral purpose like planting a mango tree is just as responsible as the person that steals the mangoes it means the same organism being yourself is connected to all actions throughout its existence
Explain the circular causation paradox
Circular causation correlates to time travel it if you were to go into the path and show the original creator his ideas and accomplishments he does in the future, he cant really say his work was his original ideas, you showed him. So the question becomes, where was the original idea created as you showed them what they accomplished before they did it. It’s a slow the original idea never existed.
explain the grandfather paradox
The grandfather paradox is all about motivation. if you have the motivation to do something and change it in the past then you have already failed as if you were successful that motivation will not be there, you will not want to change what you aim to change.
