Phil 105

propositional knowledge

Knowledge having to do with knowing that some proposition is true.

necessary condition

...

Sufficient condition

...

analysis of a concept

...

What is the standard analysis of knowledge?

...

Cognitive relativism

the doctrine that the truth about something depends on what persons or cultures believe

subjective relativism

the view that right actions are those endorsed by an individual

cultural relativism

the view that right actions are those endorsed by one's culture

why is cultural relativism implausible?

...

a priori knowledge

knowledge gained independently of or prior to sense experience (all triangles have three sides, 2+3=5)

a posteriori knowledge

knowledge that depends entirely on sense experience (John the bachelor has red hair, that he is holding 5 pencils) - to know these things we must rely on our senses

rationalism

the view that through unaided reason we can come to know what the world is like.

empiricism

the view that our knowledge of the empirical world comes solely from sense experience

Descartes method of doubt

Consider all beliefs that are not certainly true to be false. Either we are dreaming or being attacked by a malicious demon.

when is a proposition dubitable?

A proposition is analytic if and only if it is not true or false only in virtue of the meaning of the parts that compose it.

Descartes' dream and evil genius hypotheses

...

Could you be living in the matrix, or be a brain in a vat?

...

Descartes' assumption

is that knowledge requires certainty

Descartes' argues against trusting the senses on the grounds that....

they sometimes deceive him

Descartes declares that he is...

a thing that thinks

Descartes' reasons that the very fact that he is thinking shows that...

he exists

at first Descartes' supposes that everything he sees is ...

false

Who asserts that existing and perceiving are one and the same thing?

Berkeley

Berkeley insists that heat and cold are..

only sensations existing in our minds

Who believes that sensible things cannot exist except in a mind?

Berkeley

Descartes says there are very few way that we can tell whether we are dreaming

False

Descartes says that because it is possible that an evil genius is deceiving him, he can never know that he himself exists

false

Descartes concludes that there is now way out of his deep skepticism

False

Descartes declares with certainty that he knows that he is.

true

Descartes' concludes that he is a thing that breathes.

false

For Descartes, the statement "I am, I exist" is necessarily true every time he utters it

true

Hume believes that external objects resemble internal perceptions

false

Berkeley declares that there is no such thing as material substance

true

Berkeley thinks that the sweet or bitter taste of food is inherent in the food itself.

false

Descartes'

founder of modern philosophy

Empiricists

John Locke, George Berkeley, and David Hume

Descartes' dream argument

there are no certain indications by which we may clearly distinguish wakefulness from asleep" says .. it is possible that our sense experience- by which we presume to know material reality- is just a dream.

Descartes' evil genius argument

evil genius would be deceiving us about every kind of thought "I could possibly have

cant be certain that you are looking at a piece of paper because..

the evil genius is making an external reality appear to exist

basic structure of a skeptical argument

...

How does Descartes' use the evil genius hypothesis to arrive at his first claim of indubitable knowledge?

He says " if he can have thoughts, he must exist. even an evil genius cannot rob him of this knowledge. in the very act of doubting, or of experiencing something contrived by the evil genius, Descartes finds unshakable proof that he himself exists

cogito ergo sum

I think therefore I am" Descartes argues that one must doubt everything that one cannot be absolutely sure of. Descartes contends that the only thing humans can be sure of is their own existence. From there on they must form clear and distinct ideas to d

Locke's argument on the doctrine of innate principles and ideas

John Locke argues that there are no innate ideas imprinted on a child when born. The ideas are all created from experiences in life. He argues that 'whatever is, is' and 'It is impossible for the same thing to be and not to be'. Sounding a bit like Shakes

Direct realism

holds that objects in the physical world possess all the characteristics that ordinary people believe they do

How does direct realism explain perception and the external world?

Locke says that all ideas are ultimately derived form experience and experience is twofold. - external experience (sensation) and inner experience (reflection). through sensations we receive ideas of the sensible qualities of physical objects. Through ref

perceptual relativity

argument against direct realism. Under different perceptual conditions(distance, angle, lighting), material objects appear to have different properties. Each object has one real property of each one (size, color, shape, texture). Object is only real when

How does scientific account of perception undermine direct realism?

...

representative relaism

Descartes and Locke's theory of the external world. It holds that there are mind-independent physical objects but we do not perceive them directly.

How does representative realism explain perception and the external world?

we directly perceive our ideas of physical objects ( sense data caused by them) and then infer that they exist. it is compatible with science and perpetual relativity

Locke's distinction between primary and secondary qualities

primary qualities are objective properties such as size, solidity, and mobility. secondary qualities are in the mind- they depend on the operation of the senses, they exist only when someone experiences them. such as the color red or the smell of roses.

if a tree falls and there is no one around, does it make a sound? - Locke

...

basic idea of Locke's argument that an objective world of physical objects exists?

must distinguish between the objects of our experience ( external objects ) and the experience of those objects ( sensations, or sense data ) so we have direct knowledge not of external objects, but of the sense data related to those objects.

objection that perpetual ideas resemble physical objects

Locke would have to step outside of his mind so that he could inspect both the idea and the object and judge that they resemble each other, but that is clearly impossible.

the objection that physical objects cause perpetual ideas

how did Locke acquire the knowledge that physical objects cause ideas? his own theory implies that such casual knowledge is impossible

maintaining this claim is difficult for an empiricist like Locke because...

it seems to quickly give rise to a new round of skeptical problems.

Berkeley's idealism

Reality can be explained without the concept of substance; reality is exactly what we perceive thru our senses : qualities; qualities are united by the mind to form ideas; objects are ideas

what are physical objects according to Berkeley's theory?

it claims that physical objects are collections of ideas, they exist only in our minds.

Descartes' reply to the skeptic

Cartesian circle

Three theses concerning perception of the external world

1. the immediate object of perception is always an idea in the mind. 2. physical` objects are immediately perceived. 3. physical objects exist outside the mind.

duelist theories- substance dualism

it is the notion that the mind and the body consist of two fundamentally difference kinds of stuff, or substances. mind- nonphysical stuff and the body - of physical stuff. these two substances make up a person. - and the universe for these theorists

Descartes' dualism (interactionism)

also substance dualism but he believe that the mind or (soul) and body are completely independent of one another and interact casually. this theory has very little credibility

Dualistic theories-

substance dualism and property dualism also known as cartesian dualism and epiphenomenalism

materialistic theories-

identity theory and functionalism

materialism

the doctrine that every object and event in the world is physical. so mental states must be physical states or somehow reducible to physical states.

identity theory

the view that mental states are identical to physical brain states. "the MIND is the brain

functionalism

view that the mind is the FUNCTIONS that the brain performs

Descartes' divisibility argument

the crux of this reasoning is that bodies and minds must be different things ( and thus dualism is true ) because bodies can be divided into parts but minds cannot.

what is the problem with Descartes' divisibility argument?

1. multiple personality disorder ( a person has at least one alternate personality that can direct behavior ) their minds appear to be divided 2. a person's consciousness can apparently be divied through a kind of brain surgery known as cerebral commissur

problem of the mind-body interaction for descartes

how can nonphysical reality influence any event involving atoms, cells, blood, and bone? he doesn't explain how the mind-body interaction occurs and therefore is regarded as inadequate. it is also incompatible with science. and conflicts with the basic la

Basic idea of the identity theory

minds states are brain states.

main considerations of favor of this theory of the mind ?

...

relation between sensations and brain states?

a pain or a perception is nothing more than a certain process going on in the brains neurons.

what is a zombie according to chalmers?

he claims that it is conceivable that such a zombie could exist. that is it is conceivable that there could be a create physically idential to him in every way but lacking the mental states that constitute conscious experience.
1. it is conceivable that t

Nagel's bat argument

he argues focusing n the fact that there is something it is like to experience the world in the way bats do. we would never be able to know what it feels like to be a bat. the bat's conscious experience would be beyond our ken. we could say the same about

Jacksons 'Mary, the color scientist' objection to materialism

...

What is functionalism?

says that mental states are neither brain states nor behavioral states. they are states that have casual functions, and it's possible for these functions to play out in just about any kind of stuff, physical or nonphysical ( although contemp functionalist

how does lewis's example of the pained martian support functionalism?

the core doctrine of functionalism which is multiple realizability - ' states that the capacity to be realized or instantiated in a multiple variety of forms and materials.

lewis's objection to the identity theory based on the possibility of a martian who feels pain but has a very different physiology than humans, in particular has no c-fibers.

the identity theory states that since the mind is idential to the brain, no being can have a mind unless it has a brain. but arguably a being could posses a mind ( have desires, ideas, emotions, sensations) without having a brain ( the human organ). these

what is a functional state?

the capacity to be realized

explain what i means to say that a concept is a funtional concept and is multiply realizable-

this means that

funtionalists analysis of a mental state

a mental state is defined by its casual role- by the stimuli that initiate it, the resulting interactions with other mental states, and behavior that is subsequently produced. a mental state, then, is just a distinctive set of inputs and outputs.
ex.
pain

what is strong AI?

artificial intelligence

Turing machine

a theoretical model that became the blueprint for modern digital computers and then he devised the turing test, a method that he thought could determine whether the machines are intelligent.

what is intentionality?

...

sealer's Chinese thought experiment

he argues that an appropriately programmed computer cannot acquire a cognitive capacity such as understanding and believing. that is, strong AI is false. a programmed computer works by manipulating the syntax of formal symbols, but that is a far cry from

syntax vs symbols

computers manipulate symbols syntactically, according to what they look like or where the are positioned. people use symbols semantically- according to what they mean. without semantics the system doesn't understand anything