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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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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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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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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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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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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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, ...
user69125
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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 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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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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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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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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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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Along the lines of the concept of the inverted spectrum, can it be that musical pitch perception varies as well in an analogous fashion?
Imagine hearing your favorite song from the point of view of a dog. Dogs perceive all sounds as being at a far lower pitch than we do. If you could hear what you sound like to a dog you'd find that ...
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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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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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Are evolution and reinforcement learning related?
Are evolution and reinforcement learning related?
Evolution and reinforcement learning are related in that they both involve a process of learning and adaptation over time.
Evolution is a biological ...
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Is personhood different from personal identity?
I'm confused as to what the difference between these two terms are. Suppose that I am a cognitivist about personhood. Does this imply that higher order cognitive functions underwrite personal identity ...
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What's the difference between Me and the person I am?
Let's say that each person in the world is conscious and their experience can be viewed on a video. Then let's introduce an additional giant movie theatre screen, and call it "Me". In this ...
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Has brain-to-brain communication been addressed in the literature, and if so, is there a fundamental reorganization of philosophy required?
Answering Is this a good argument against mental causation? led me to a simple metaphysical question, and I wonder if anyone in the Western Canon addressed it, particularly someone in the last century....
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Is this a good argument against mental causation?
If mental causation exists, then mental phenomena would affect the bodies of sentient beings.
Then the bodies of sentient beings (and only they) would be affected by an additional set of causal ...
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Was Russell right in saying that skepticism is psychologically impossible?
"Skepticism, while logically impeccable, is psychologically impossible, and there is an element of frivolous insincerity in any philosophy which pretends to accept it. Moreover, if skepticism is ...
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Is philosophy about the resolution of mental conflict and disunity?
Consider the following "psychological" take on what philosophy is about.
To do philosophy means:
To have disorder in your mind: conflict between one idea and another, or insufficient ...
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Should we have full disbelief in things with no evidence or leave room for belief? [duplicate]
Should we have full disbelief in propositions with no evidence or should we have a small amount of belief in them?
The proponents of the camp that says you should have a small amount of belief often ...
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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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The private language argument and Descartes's private thoughts
In his "Thinking it Through" textbook, Appiah writes
It is a big step from saying that some of our mental states are things that other people can know about, to saying, with the ...
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What counts as a suitable trial?
So, Having emerged from a period of "being tested" myself Im interested in what counts as a "test", with the practical view of finding "tests" which are the least "...
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Common sense and belief in the existence of other minds
Does our common sense believe that other people have minds because it is useful (just agnosticism and pragmatism), or because our common sense really has good reasons to believe that other people have ...
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Is this argument about computers and consciousness logically valid?
Assume 1) You can make a conscious agent consisting of a robot controlled by some computer; 2) There are no zombies 3) You replace the computer by a chinese-like room version that behaves identically.
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Do non physical causes exist?
When we decide to move an arm, some argue that it is an example of a mental event causing a physical effect. But doesn’t recent science show that free will may be illusory and from a time perspective, ...
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What is a functional relationship?
By a "functional relationship" I mean "the way" a part of a system interacts with the rest of the system. In a certain sense it "doesn't matter" how the part of the ...
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How exactly does representational theory of mind help resolve the materialist problem of a qualia without physical origin?
I was reading this stanford entry and I can't understand how representationalism helps overcome the problem of a sensory quality without external origin that otherwise undermines belief in materialism....
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Kant and ontological character of the mind
I have a basic understanding of Kant's philosophy which revolves mostly around how human mind synthesizes valid knowledge, that is, the forms of understanding unifying perceptions, and forms of ...
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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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Philosophy of time and intuitions about qualia being dependent on a distinguished present moment
When I’ve attempted to research philosophy of time I find that a lot of the discussion seems to be about how to give a logical analysis of tenses in language, but relatively little of it seems to pay ...
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What does not kill me makes me stronger
"Out of life's school of war: What does not destroy me, makes me
stronger."
-from the Maxims & Arrows section of aphorisms, in Die Götzen-Dämmerung (Twilight of the Idols) by Friedrich ...
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