Week 1.1 - The Brain Flashcards
(20 cards)
Keystone of Materialism
The idea that our mental life emerges from our physical brain.
- Odd, unnatural view
Keystone of Dualism
Dualism is an idea that’s been found in just about every religion and every philosophy.
*Made explicit in Plato
The philosopher that is most thoughtful and articulate defender of dualism
Rene Descartes
For Descartes, he believed that animals were?
material things
*He thought that the doctrine of materialism was correct about non-human animals
This is what Descartes argued about humans
“Humans are different”
According to Descartes, what is there in humans?
Duality
What is the duality in humans?
- We are part material
- But we’re also in part spiritual, separate, mental, psychological.
*We possess two sorts of things.
*We are composed of two sorts of things.
The first argument for a non-material nature
“Humans are capable of doing things that no machine, no material entity ever could.”
Argument 1 (Duality)
The creativity and spontaneity of human action
The scenario that Descartes thought about humans as machines responding to the environment.
- Robots in French Royal Gardens in the 17th century (Modern Disneyland or Euro Disney)
*Had robots that react when you approach them or when you step on certain stones.
“Well, maybe we’re such things, maybe we’re just machines responding to the environment.”
- Descartes said we can’t be
*He said maybe animals, non-human animals can be, but human behavior is far more complicated, and variegated, and subtle to be explained in such simple ways.
Who ‘s the critique of behaviorism which argued that basically humans respond in a relatively reflexive way to environmental stimuli?
Noam Chomsky
“That can’t be. Our behavior’s far too complicated for that. So, we can’t be machines.”
Descartes and Chomsky
Descartes’ second argument for a non-material nature
Intuition
*His claim was we don’t feel like bodies
Method in Intuition
Method of doubt
“What do we know for sure, and what can we question?”
Method of doubt
Example of Method of doubt
The Matrix, which maintains that we think we’re running around in the physical world, but actually, with the lucky exception of our heroes like Neo and Trinity, we’re actually just plugged into some sort of system.
*Illusions
“There’s a lot we can’t be sure of. The things that we are seemingly most confident about in real world can’t be shaken.”
Descartes and his followers
But Descartes said, there’s one thing you can’t doubt:
- You can’t doubt your own consciousness.
- You can’t doubt your own existence.
Argument 2 (Duality)
“I think, therefore I am”
