Philosophy of Mind materialism

This week’s aims To explain and evaluate Ryle’s behaviourism To introduce mind-brain type identity theory To develop evaluative skills

Ryle, The Concept of the Mind Introduction Ryle argues that: Dualism suggests that we can only know about mental states through introspection But this would make it impossible for us to use mental concepts at all Why? Let’s look on p.39

Ryle, The Concept of the Mind Why do you think Ryle calls substance dualism ‘the dogma of the ghost in the machine’? What does Ryle mean by a category mistake? Is he right that dualism rests on a category mistake?

Criticisms of behaviourism Can we really explain mental states in terms of behaviour alone? E.g. Belief it is raining = behaviour of looking for an umbrella What other mental states might be involved? Desire Fear Belief

Criticisms of behaviourism – p.40-42 Group 1: Dualist arguments Group 2: The difficulty of defining mental states accurately Group 3: The conceivability of mental states without associated behaviour Group 4: The asymmetry between self-knowledge and knowledge of other people’s mental states What is the criticism? How convincing is it?

Practice questions What is analytic behaviourism? (3) Briefly explain logical behaviourism (5) Briefly outline Ryle’s argument that dualism rests on a ‘category mistake’ (5) Briefly explain Putnam’s argument concerning super-Spartans (5) Outline and explain two criticisms of behaviourism (12)

Evaluation questions Can mental states be reduced to behavioural states? Does the multiple realisability of mental states show that materialist theories are inadequate? Relevant information / ideas from philosophers? What is their argument? Counter-arguments? What is your answer?

Mind-brain type identity theory – p.44 Mind–brain type identity theory: all mental states are identical to brain states (‘ontological’ reduction) although ‘mental state’ and ‘brain state’ are not synonymous (so not an ‘analytic’ reduction) This theory argues that mental states and processes are just neurological states and processes – that is, they are states and processes in the central nervous system. So according to this theory, the mind is identical to the brain.

Booklets, p.44 The idea is that any given mental state – e.g. your thought about your grandmother, the sensation of pain in your lower back, your memory of your last trip to London – is the exact same thing as the firing of such-and-such a clump of neurons in your brain. It is saying that your thought is such-and-such neurons firing. There is nothing more to the thought than that. If you were able to peer inside someone’s skull and somehow see the neurons firing, you would literally be looking at their thoughts

Booklets, p.44 Mind-brain identity theory claims that folk psychology can be reduced to neuroscience What does this mean?

Types and tokens ‘The cat is on the mat.’ How many words are in that sentence? The answer depends on whether you count the word ‘the’ once or twice. If we count ‘the’ as just one word we are counting it by type. If we count it twice we are counting it as tokens.

Types and tokens – p.45 The identity theory was originally intended as a ‘type-identity’ theory: it claimed that for each type of mental state (e.g. the belief that it is raining, the desire for a cookie, etc.) there could be matched, one-to-one, a specific type of brain state (e.g. neuronal firing pattern of type A, neuronal firing pattern of type B, etc.) Does this seem right to you?

Criticisms of identity theory – p.47-48 Group 1: Dualist arguments Group 2: The difficulty with providing the type identities (the multiple realisability of mental states) Group 3: The location problem: brain states have precise spatial locations which thoughts lack What is the criticism? How convincing is it?

Homework Log into Moodle and click on A2 Advanced Philosophy – Homework and Assignments Look at the eighth block that says 8: Mind–brain type identity theory Look at / read at least three links. At least one of them must be an article or website rather than just a YouTube link. Feel free to look at more links than this if you like.