Midterm Flashcards
(118 cards)
dualism
the idea that mind and body
are fundamentally different substances
or processes
Monism or Materialism:
The
universe is made of only one kind of
physical material (“atoms”)
de la Mettrie (1748)
“L’homme Machine”
People are machines with mechanical
systems plumbing, ventilation,
temperature control, etc.
Darwin (ca. 1850) :
all biological structures are “devices” that are adapted to serve the survival of the organism • -> The mind is a machine
What is a “machine?”
A machine is a process consisting entirely of
physical, material elements that affect each
other causally—that is, via physical processes. we reduce things we DON’T
understand to combinations of things we DO
understand.
mechanistic theory
every element is understood in terms of the
combination of simpler, stupider, elements.
homonculus
an imaginary “man
inside the head”
Syllogism
a chain of reasoning which the conclusion follows from the premises with logical certainty
George Boole:
An Investigation of the Laws of
Thought (1854)
•In algebra, we can make statements about numbers
that are true regardless of the specific values of the
numbers:
x + x = 2x
•Boole proposed to do the same thing with propositions
instead of numbers.
Propositions
Propositions are statements that are true or false.
Boolean algebra
a way of “calculating” with ideas instead
of with numbers, also called Propositional Calculus
logical connectives
how we put propositions together
conjunction
A∧B “A is true AND B is true”
disjunction
A∨B “A is true OR B is true (or both)”
negation
~A, “not A” = “A is not true”
implication
A → B, “If A is true then B is true”.
(Equivalent to ~(A∧~B), which is equivalent to ~A∨B ….
not really a separate connective)
Charles Babbage
1830 - Analytical Engine
Alan Turing
Wrote the basis for modern computing, he described a hypothetical computer called a Turing machine.
A Turing machine
A Turing machine gets input symbols on an infinite paper tape, and
writes output symbols on the same tape
It can:
• Read symbols to the tape
• Write symbols to the tape
• Move the tape left or right
• Make (logical) conditional decisions about which of the above to do.
algorithm
a concrete procedure to solve a particular problem
that is, give a particular output for each input
A universal Turing machine
is a Turing machine that can be given the encoding of
another Turing machine and “simulate” it
Turing test
Can a machine “think”?
or a better yet:
What observable behavior would count as thinking?
Church-Turing thesis
Anything that can be computed by any system can be computed by a
computer (a Turing machine)
Any process you can create an algorithm for can be carried out on a
computer.
Any process you can’t create an algorithm for — you don’t fully
understand.
Logic gates
Same as connectives,
but as a piece of a circuit