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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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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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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How does representationalism respond to the "Mary's room argument"?
So here's Frank Jackson himself responding to his own argument using "representationalism":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPT0BE1WAHk
So as I'm understanding Frank's newer view... when ...
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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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Has Alexandre Grothendieck ever expounded a particular stance on metaphysics or ontology?
It seems that in Recoltes et Semailles, he does go into quite a bit of philosophizing. the only thing of relevance I've found is that he notes how Riemann "in passing" said how he thought perhaps the "...
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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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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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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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Turing's bridging argument of conflating mathematical logic and the philosophy of mind?
So I read this paper and I'll quote the relevant parts:
'Turing's machines are humans who calculate
On Computable Numbers' thus took on the
aspect of a hybrid paper: an attempt to integrate what ...
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Subjective and objective reality
I'd like to talk about two related ideas and ask which philosophers have talked about those.
The first idea is that the "subject", the I, has two fundamental aspects: I can experience things,...
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What is the dichotomy called when being implicitly 'without' when one says to look 'within', and what does it mean?
I think the phrase 'Look within' is used often in the context of meditation. If someone can actually perform the act of looking within, it implicitly means that someone is currently 'without', and ...
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What critical analysis has been published on Logosophy?
I came across Logosophy for the first time today and I’m struggling to find any analysis of it. The Wikipedia article seems quite promotional, and does not link to any critical sources - at least, not ...
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What is the distinction between A-intension and C-intension?
I'm having a really hard time understanding a concept discussed in “Qualia and Analytic Conditionals” by Braddon-Mitchell and "Why We Need A-Intensions" by Jackson. Here's my extraction of these ...
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Is dualism unlikely because the mind is inextricable in its activity from matter?
I've been thinking about dualism lately, but one thing that deals a pretty strong blow to this view in my mind is that it implies that the mind can exist apart from physical reality (an immaterial ...
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To what extent is phenomenology capable of advancing empirically testable (i.e. falsifiable) hypotheses?
Otherwise, to the extent it cannot, what is its utility?
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Which major philosophers (if any) prior to the 1900s believed that consciousness was an emergent property of the brain?
I am going to be doing an Independent Study with one of my professors, and I am obligated (due to the professor's expertise) to choose a philosopher prior to the 1900s.
Were there any philosophers ...
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journal for mathematics of philosophy/mythology
I have been working on research involving the use of mathematical formulas and reasoning in order to philosophical concepts, specifically concepts concerning mythology, the Jungian model of the psyche,...
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Connections between concepts
How can it be possible that two concepts have a connection between them? Even when we admit that every such connection is empirical, we have a necessary connection between the concept "connection" and ...
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Do relationships rebut the Chinese room argument?
Searle says syntax is neither sufficient for nor constitutive of semantics, all a computer gets (eg from sensors) is syntax (tokenised shapes) therefore computers will never understand the world. ...
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Arguments in scientific discussion and questioning administration on decision making
While we may have a no-holds barred attitude to prove a point in a scientific deliberation, we have to be little more responsible while questioning the decision making of an administration (assuming ...
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Implications of John Searle's distinction between brute facts and social facts?
According to John Searle, there is a difference between "brute facts" and "social facts." How does this view impact educational theory and practice?
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Do we need a theory of mind to think about qualia, and are these the capacity to think about the senses?
On animal consciousness
Carruthers (1998a,b, 2000) has argued to this effect based on his
‘higher-order thought’ theory, according to which, phenomenal
consciousness requires the capacity to ...
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If one agrees with the bundle theory of self, then isn't human society itself a real (as in non-metaphorical) self-aware mind?
Hegel's world spirit is usually described as way of philosophizing about history, more so than an actual mind. Yet when describing the world spirit, he ascribes intentionality and agency to it, ...
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Are you familiar with a similar argument against the (nomological) supervenience of the mental on the physical?
The SEP article on supervenience claims "Just about everyone, even a Cartesian dualist, believes some version of this supervenience claim [that the mental nomologically supervenes on the physical]." ...
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What is the difference between language of thought is innate(known as mentalese) and natural 'learned' language?
Language of thought theories generally fall into two categories. The first one is accept the innate, known as mentalese and the second one is which don't accept the innate, but the language of thought ...
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Planes vs. Consciousness:
Imagine two fellows named George and John. Both are similar enough in intelligence and language competency. Both have a tertiary education, similar literary interests, choice diction and are equally ...
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What is the difference between Epicurean sense-perception and Qualia?
In the SEP, on its discussion of ancient theories of the soul, they say:
Epicurus is an atomist, and in accordance with his atomism he takes the soul, like everything else that there is except for ...
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What are Kant's critiques of Hume's and Descartes's conceptions of the self?
What are Kant's critiques of Descartes's conception of the self contained in the Metaphysical Meditations and of Hume's conception of the self expressed in the Essay concerning human understanding? ...
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Would it be possible for a mind to replicate itself in Cartesian substance dualism?
I had a class in microbiology the other day, and we were talking about DNA replication. During the cell cycle, a cell goes through a cycle where it's DNA is duplicated and creates two daughter cells.
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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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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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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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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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Church-Turing Thesis and the human brain
A question on my homework: Imagine that scientists discover that the behavior of the brain can be completely described by some mathematical function. Given the Church–Turing Thesis, would this ...
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What are the different types/levels of consciousness in the experiencing of feelings?
What type of consciousness is the mere experience of having a feeling. So one has a feeling of anger, happiness, excitement, etc. By the word "mere," I mean the feeling is not reflected on;...
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How and where do I learn philosophy?
I am very new to philosophy, in what ways can I gain deeper knowledge about the subject itself and explore all the branches and truly understand what philosophy exactly is?
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Is there any psychological research into, or theory about, propositional attitude reports？
What do propositional attitudes such as belief and suspicion mean not just as logical (syntactic) conceptions but as something in the mind？ When I believe or feel skeptical about certain propositions ...
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epistemic externalism and content externalism
Putnam's original twin earth experiment shows that the meaning of "water" is determined by external factors. This is an epistemic fact about knowledge and meaning: What we really mean by ...
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What did Anscombe dislike about "The Concept of Mind"?
In the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy it says
Anecdotal evidence (thanks to David Pears) is that Elizabeth Anscombe
was scathing about The Concept of Mind when it was published.
I find this ...
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Something similar to The Knowledge Argument which works within Physicalism?
Here is The Knowledge Argument according to SEP (Mary is either monochrome or views the world through monochrome monitor):
(1) Mary has all the physical information concerning human color vision ...
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A Take on Application of Mathematics
The passage:
"To introduce rigorous mathematics, I believe it's essential to discuss the whys and establish a core relation between mathematics and application. Mathematics begins with ...
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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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Is there, in Aristotle, a broad concept of thinking ( noèsis) that includes imagination ? Or is imagination a purely sensible power?
In Aristotle's De Anima, Bk. III, Part 3 ( http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/soul.3.iii.html) one can read this :
"Thinking is different from perceiving and is held to be in part imagination, in ...
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What philosophical works explore the concept of solitude?
I am currently working on the solitude of old people during the pandemic time. I wonder if there is any philosophical work that explores what solitude is and how it emerges from different perspectives....
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Why should Dasein be authentic when one knows that he/she will be responsible for his/her actions when he chooses authenticity over inauthenticity?
Answers except "to know about being yourself" are really appreciated because this is the question itself. What should I strive to know about myself when I am happy with my life right now, ...
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Identity of concepts' intentional content
I have recently read some articles about (lexical) concepts. Philosophers tend to think that, in order for two speakers to be able to communicate successfully, they must associate the exact same ...
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Concepts possession conditions
As a consequence of my growing interest in epistemology, I recently read some articles about concepts. The authors were originating from different fields, such as philosophy of mind, language and ...
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Solipsism, except everyone shares a single mind?
It's conceivable that I could suddenly switch places with someone else. I'm not talking about our brains switching places, but rather, from now on, my mind experiencing the other person's qualia. ...
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Did Freud adopt an intentionalist ( or representationalist) theory of mind.? ( On Wakefield's reading of Freud's theory of mind)
In Freud and Philosophy Of Mind, Jerome Wakefield wants to show that Freud's philosophy of mind is best understood in its Cartesian-Brentanian context.
According to Brentano, mental acts are ...
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