Exam 4: Mind

Explain why Ryle refers to the "official doctrine" as "the dogma of the Ghost in the Machine." How well do you think this metaphor addresses the problems in the "official doctrine"?

Descartes supposes that he is being deceived by a malevolent demon.

In your opinion, which is more plausible-dualism or materialism? Explain.

"Ockham's razor" forms an argument against dualism because

What does Nagel mean by "the subjective character of experience"? What kinds of organisms have experiences with a subjective character? Do you agree with Nagel that there can be no "objective character of experience"?

Dualists argue that some mental phenomena-like sense experience-can't be reduced to the physical.

Of the following, which is easiest to perceive according to Descartes?

According to Turing, machines can make mistakes.

Explain the main elements of the view Ryle is criticizing. Then briefly state his main criticism of it.

According to the argument from irreducibility

Descartes believed that a physical system such as a brain could never achieve human levels of reasoning and language use. Therefore, he concluded that our minds must be nonphysical substances. How does Churchland respond to this point?

What is the "official doctrine"? Explain its main elements.

Write a similar story to the Fred or Mary case, using a sense other than sight. Try to show the same conclusion, that physicalism is not the whole story.

Emotion and consciousness are strongly affected when the brain is physically affected.

The body problem is the question, "what does it mean to be physical?"

Taylor believes that a soul

According to Nagel, conscious experience is a widespread phenomenon that occurs at many levels of animal life.

Philosophers commonly try to define "physical" by deferring to the work of particle physicists, but this is problematic according to Montero because

Lewis denies that there is anything to be known about what it's like to eat Vegemite.

What is the significance of the automatons example? Explain.