Questions tagged [philosophy-of-mind]
Philosophy of mind is a branch of philosophy that studies the nature of the mind, mental events, mental functions, mental properties, consciousness, and their relationship to the physical body, particularly the brain.
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The mathematical concept of a limit in terms of the classical theory of concepts
I am studying the limit concept from mathematics using the classical theory of concepts. According to this theory a concept is;
"A structured mental representation which is characterised by a ...
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Side effects of scientific mind on levels of life
There are enumerous benefits of scientific temperament, as i have read so far. Its working abilities, functionality and dealings with day to day matter is fantabulous.
My question is : Do this kind ...
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Paradox of the Loving "I": Is there any theory to answer my Paradox?
I came up with this when I was reading about the Paradox of Fiction in one of my Aesthetic philosophy texts. Here it is:
The Paradox of the Loving Individual:
(1) One experiences themselves as a ...
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Did Berkeley change his mind on his latest work "Siris" (1774)?
While studying Bishop Berkeley in depth I have faced some interesting arguments regarding his philosophy is shifted and changed on his later life.
The main source of this argument is from his not ...
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Is Taoism a philosophy?
I find some of the individual ideas in Taoism comforting when applied to my own life (e.g. effortless action, non-attachment, acceptance, duality), but I don't really know what Taoism is as an all ...
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How does George Berkeley locate mind in the mind dependent body in his arguments? [closed]
We all know that Berkeley believed that only the minds' perceptions and the Spirit that perceives are what exists in reality. So how did he locate the mind in the body and if the bodies are mind ...
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Why am I this particular human being?
Some philosophers dismiss this as a question about a tautology: when Alice asks "Why am I Alice?", this is equivalent to her asking "Why is Alice Alice?", which is not an interesting question. But ...
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Has any philosopher written about the implications of online multiplayer games on shared consciousness?
This question originates from the explanation of Existential Comics 332.
When The Matrix came out, the New York Times reached out to philosopher of mind John Searle to write an article about the ...
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How do we know that the mind is not a physical entity?
Most people believe that the mind is separate from the physical world. But how do we actually know that? Maybe the mind is a physical object. Of course, to answer this question, we need a rigorous ...
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Has anyone ever claimed that if Daniel Dennett, or a like-minded person, did actually manage to explain consciousness, humans would be diminished?
Here's a link to a free, seemingly legal, PDF of an awesome book, Sweet Dreams by Dan Dennett. I finished reading it a day or two ago.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/...
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Viciously circular arguments against philosophy
Science seeks to explain natural events with natural causes. The
Turing hypothesis does this. Beyond the bounds of science, there is no
objective argument for anything really, just philosophical ...
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What does the IBE argument (the best explanation argument) look like in favor of the existence of other minds?
I have read several versions of the IBE argument for the existence of other minds.
But I got a little confused.
Now I'm not sure I know what it should sound like.
How should the IBE argument (argument ...
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Do unicorns exist in the mind?
Do unicorns exist in the mind?
Do just a concept of unicorns exist in the mind? Or are unicorns a concept?
Anselm said God exists in the mind. But I wonder whether just a concept of God exists in the ...
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The ultimate absurdity: if consciousness is an illusion, how can anything we know be real?
Epiphenomenalism holds that conscious experience is an ineffectual by-product of brain activities. Eliminationists go further and add that this by-product is an illusion. I was wondering whether ...
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Does panpsychism imply mathematical entities are conscious?
Does panpsychism claim or logically imply that even mathematical entities, like numbers and functions and sets, are conscious entities? Or is it restricted to physical objects?
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Is there a philosophical assessment of the terms "virtual" and "imaginary"?
In casual terms, at least from explanations I can find,
imaginary is something which "does not exist" in reality: "an imaginary world"
virtual is something which "exists ...
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Is this a solution to the disjunction problem of causal representation?
As I understand it, the disjunction problem is how could a causal theory of inner representation account for mistaken identification of external objects or object types. For example, if I see a fox ...
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Consciousness and Understanding of Physics, Mathematics and Philosophy
I just finished watching a youtube video Bernard Carr - Why Did Consciousness Emerge? on consciousness and the talkers spend a great deal of time talking about emergent aspect of consciousness and its ...
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Will we ever have an answer? [closed]
Why am I always asking myself questions that do not have answers? What is my purpose, why are we here? These questions cause me great anxiety.
I wish I could find a way to stop asking and just accept, ...
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Is every intelligence a collection?
Is every intelligence a collection? Obviously 'general intelligence' is a collection of abilities, a statistical entity that is a measure of ability "in general". What about musical ...
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Critique of those missing the Hard Problem?
From everything I've ever seen about the “Hard Problem of Consciousness”, the issue is that materialists and physicalists presume a different question and answer that one instead.
I feel like the two ...
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How Can Computation Cause Consciousness?
The question of how consciousness arises and what, if any, effect it has on our behaviour is clearly both fascinating intellectually and of great practical and ethical significance. One very common ...
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Is the speciousness of the specious present specious?
The text book analysis of the idea that our experience might extend in time is given below:
"...what we perceive, we perceive as present—as going on right now. Can we perceive a relation between ...
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Simulation hypothesis and solipsism
Is Nick Bostrom's simulation hypothesis a solipsistic idea? This hypothesis says that only I have consciousness, and all other people are unconscious philosophical zombies? Which version of the ...
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The more you learn, the more you are sad?
I've read multiple times that if you learn more, you understand more seeing the reality of things causing a sadness all over you; is that real? Or is it that the more you know the more you are happy?
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What does Hume think about Occam's razor?
Let's define Occam's razor as this:
That it is not rational to believe something unnecessary or extra about reality without a specific reason to believe it. In other words, the facts that are ...
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The initial point of everything
Every action is influenced by something, an action happens when it is intended to. Isn't everything influenced by some other phenomena that itself has been influenced by other events? Then every ...
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What exactly is the persuasive power behind Jackson's "Mary's Room" argument?
The knowledge argument (also known as Mary's room or Mary the super-scientist) is a philosophical thought experiment proposed by Frank Jackson in his article "Epiphenomenal Qualia" (1982) and extended ...
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Does Hume propose that causes might actually just be explained by coincidence?
Does Hume propose that what people interpret as casual connections could instead be explained by coincidence?
I want to know if this is an accurate understanding.
Hume says something to the effect of:
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Exploring the Concept of "No Mind" in Eastern Philosophy: An Inquiry into the Foundations and Implications
As an aspiring student of philosophy, I am deeply intrigued by the concept of "No Mind" prevalent in Eastern philosophical traditions, particularly in Zen Buddhism and Taoism. The notion of ...
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What do philosophers think about colors?
Colors seem to signify some philosophy. For example black roughly stands for death and mourning in many cultures. White on the other hand, roughly stands for purity.
There is long list of colors and ...
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Aren't we all philosophical zombies?
I've been reading about the philosophy of the mind, and I'm a bit confused. Everything I've read seems to start with the (unjustified) assumption that there is some aspect of the mind that isn't ...
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How can consciousness be an illusion?
Regarding this New Scientist article: Metaphysics special: What is consciousness?
It contains this strapline: “You may know beyond a doubt that you exist, but your ‘I’ could still be an illusion“.
(...
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Is knowledge innate or is it empirical?
Are we conceived with innate knowledge and understanding of this world? Such as a the structure of language. See Chomsky.
Or do we only understand the world by our experience of it and language and ...
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How plausible is it that every decohered entity has qualia, which merge into functional units?
I only say decohered because the quantum realm doesn't seem to have the local reality to have locally functional qualia, but maybe it has more diffuse probabilistic qualia? Then again in our macro ...
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Assuming philosophical zombies are possible, could one zombie have an inverted spectrum while the rest do not?
Philosophical zombies by definition (See Chalmers: https://consc.net/zombies-on-the-web/) lack qualia, while being normal human beings in every other way. Like normal humans, zombies make utterances ...
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The Real Problem of Being [closed]
Suppose you come into existence as a human named Tom.
The Creator tells you the one and only rule of the universe: be who you choose to be.
This is fun. You design yourself, and you choose you hair ...
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Is there a clear, objective difference between intelligence in the arts and the sciences? [closed]
Often, when referring to whether or not person A is "smart", discussion about Person A's political stance or their appreciation—or not—of art becomes part of the conversation.
This leads me ...
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How is AI changing our view of consciousness? [closed]
Consciousness doesn't reveal itself except through behaviour. We can't see others' minds, but we can hear their voice and what they say. This leads the observer to conclude that their interlocutor has ...
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Is it plausible to believe in the existence of other minds if all arguments have been criticized?
I believe that other people also have minds.
To believe in other minds, arguments are needed.
All arguments in favor of the existence of other minds are subject to strong criticism.
So it turns out ...
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Circular reasoning about the existence of other minds
If I use the IBE argument to justify my belief in the existence of other minds, but I don't know how the argument reached its conclusion, can I just trust the experts who formulated the argument or ...
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Why do people hide the assumption contained in the philosophical zombies question/idea?
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article called "Zombies" https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/zombies/ makes no mention of an assumption that seems to be hidden in the famous ...
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What are the differences between sentience, consciousness and awareness?
Dictionary definitions such as this one often seem to use the terms sentience, awareness, and consciousness as if they are synonymous with each other. Is this really the case? If not, how do they ...
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Does anyone assert the real existence of p-zombies?
Philosophical zombies are usually presented as, let say, "conceivable" and then this assertion is used to infer dualism.
Have any philosophers taken the position that p-zombies are in fact real, and, ...
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Who, if anyone did say it, was the first to say that because no qualia exist it is meaningless to say what I call "red" could be what you call "blue"?
There's a famous question that asks whether two people who agree that they are seeing a red object might be seeing (in their respective subjective experiences) different colors. For example, one is ...
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Understanding as conceptual
I am looking for references in the literature where people equate the process of understanding with conceptual activity. I will not be able to sketch it out exactly. My hunch is that there should be ...
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Is there a struggle in consciousness for evolution? [closed]
Evolution of species from monkey to human is due to gene modifications.
Is there any iota of hint that evolution is guided by the struggle in the consciousness?
For example - There can be a struggle ...
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Is creativity a pie in the sky?
The working principles of the brain and mental processes are still, for the most part, a mystery especially when it comes to consciousness and creativity.
With the advent of computers it was easy to ...
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When is mental illness a meaningful failure of wisdom?
Some philosophers think mental illness is a failure of function, to act rationally, others a failure of doing, but it can also at least involve failures of self appraisal, to accurately judge what is ...
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What defines if an inference is correct or not, (regarding different logics)?
For me, it makes sense to say for example:
From a follows b.
Not b.
Therefore not a.
I can't explain it, but it's "logical". Now I've read that there are different kind's of logic out ...
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