Exam 5: René Descartes Mind and Body

Cavendish criticizes Descartes's claim that all other animals besides man lack reason since other animals cannot express their mind, thoughts or conceptions, either by speech or any other signs, as man can do. According to Cavendish, "although they cannot talk or give intelligence to each other by speech, nevertheless each has its own peculiar and particular knowledge." Explain Cavendish's arguments in support of her position.

Explain Descartes's reasoning for his claim that he has a clear and distinct idea of "mind." Are Descartes's arguments strong or weak? Explain your answer.

According to Hume, "For my part, when I enter most intimately into what I call myself, I always stumble on some particular perception or other, of heat or cold, light or shade, love or hatred, pain or pleasure."

James says, "My thesis is that if we start with the supposition that there is only one primal stuff or material in the world, a stuff of which everything is composed, and if we call that stuff _______________ , then knowing can easily be explained as a particular sort of relation towards one another."

According to Hume, "When my perceptions are removed for any time, as by sound sleep; so long am I insensible of myself, and may truly be said to have a separate identity."

According to Hume, "It must be some one impression, that gives rise to every real idea."

According to Cavendish, the "natural mind and soul of man, not the supernatural or divine," cannot be responsible for our actions.

For Descartes, "there is a vast difference between mind and body, in respect that body, from its nature, is always _________, and that mind is entirely ___________."

Explain what Velmans means when he says, "To allow a clear distinction between consciousness of oneself and consciousness of things other than oneself, it makes more sense to reserve the term self-consciousness for a special form of reflexive consciousness in which the object of consciousness is the self or some aspect of the self."

Churchland says, "My suspicion with respect to The Hard Problem strategy is that it seems to take the class of logical derivations to be much better defined than it is. The point is, if you are careful to restrict your focus to the prototypical cases, you can easily be hornswoggled into assuming the class is well-defined."

According to Churchland, "the mysteriousness of a problem is not a fact about the problem, it is not a metaphysical feature of the universe-it is an epistemological fact about ..."

Descartes claims that it is certain that his mind is entirely distinct from his body, and that it ...

Nagel claims that "If we acknowledge that a physical theory of mind must account for the __________________________________, we must admit that no presently available conception gives us a clue how this could be done."

Velleman wants to explore the question "How might the illusion of ________________ lie at the root of human suffering?"

Locke asserts that if the same consciousness is preserved, whether in the same or different substances, then the _________________ is preserved.

Churchland says, "My suspicion with respect to The Hard Problem strategy is that it seems to take the class of ____________________ to be much better defined than it is. The point is, if you are careful to restrict your focus to the prototypical cases, you can easily be hornswoggled into assuming the class is well-defined."

Velleman suggests that "Perhaps, then, liberation from the passage of time would entail liberation from _________ altogether, though not of course from ______."

Explain in detail what it means to be a "reductionist." What are some criticisms of this position?

Velmans says, "Following the success of the brain sciences and related sciences, 20th century theories of mind in the West became increasingly materialistic." What does Velmans mean by this? Give some examples.

According to Hume, "When my perceptions are removed for any time, as by sound sleep; so long am I insensible of myself, and may truly be said ..."