Transcript Lecture 9: Materialism

LECTURE 9: MATERIALISM
In Today’s Lecture we will:
1. Briefly recap our investigation into the mind-body problem
2. Outline and become introduced to the concept of Materialism
3. Examine and discuss three materialistic theories of the mind:
I.
Behaviorism
II. The Mind-Brain Identity Theory
III. Functionalism
4. Critique and critically evaluate these theories
TODAY’S LECTURE
RECAP
So far in phi 100...
o We are continuing our investigation into the metaphysical question, what is
reality?
o We have considered a number of possible answers:
o Thales: Reality is composed of water
o Plato: Reality is composed of two worlds; Being and Becoming
o Descartes & Locke: Reality is composed of physical and mental
substances
o Berkeley: Reality is composed of ideas or mind
o We investigated an important consequence of Descartes’ dualism:
The mind-body problem
o And a number of attempts to resolve the problem:
o Descartes: Tried to find the location in which mind and body interact
o Ryle: Denies the problem itself is valid
o Berkeley: Reduced reality to one substance; mind
RECAP
A Dualist View of Reality
Mental
Taste of Ice
Cream
Experience of
Seeing something
Red
Thought About
the Cow in the
Road
Unbridgeable Gap
Physical
RECAP
Neurones and
Chemicals in
the Brain
Brain Activity in
Response to
Stimuli
Physical and
Behavioural
Responses
Idealistic Monism
Everything in reality is composed of Mind or Ideas
Taste of Ice
Cream
Mind/Ideas
RECAP
Neurones and
Chemicals in
the Brain
Experience of
Seeing something
Red
Brain Activity in
Response to
Stimuli
Thought About
the Cow in the
Road
Physical and
Behavioural
Responses
Materialistic Monism
Everything in reality is composed of material (physical) substance
Physical
Taste of Ice
Cream
Neurones and
Chemicals in
the Brain
RECAP
Experience of
Seeing something
Red
Brain Activity in
Response to
Stimuli
Thought About
the Cow in the
Road
Physical and
Behavioural
Responses
MATERIALISM
Materialists Maintain the Following:
Everything in reality is composed of one thing: physical matter
Matter exhibits the following properties:
Located in space and time
Observable
Quantifiable
Motion
Divisible
Everything can be investigated scientifically
MATERIALISM
The implications of Materialism are:
There is no thing in reality composed of anything other than matter:
Rules out the existence of anything supernatural
Minds, beliefs, thoughts, etc. are nothing more than matter
There is nothing more to reality than what can be observed
This raises some important questions:
What is the ontological status of mental events?
Are mental events entirely reducible to physical events?
If distinct, how can we explain their causality?
MATERIALISM
Mechanistic Materialism
Maintained that humans are composed entirely of physical matter
All matter is governed by physical, causal laws of nature
All human actions are, therefore, governed by causal laws of nature
The consequence is that the universe, including humans and animals is
one big machine
MATERIALISM
Laws of Nature
1. A body remains at rest or in motion with a constant velocity unless
acted on by an outside force
2. The sum of the forces acting on a body is equal to the product of its
mass and acceleration
3. For every action there is an equal opposite reaction
MATERIALISM
To be continued next lecture...
BEHAVIOURISM
Behaviorism maintains:
All statements about an individual’s mental life can be translated into
statements about observable behaviors.
Anything else is mere nonsense.
Behaviorism comes in three forms:
Soft Behaviorism
Hard Behaviorism
Logical Behaviorism
BEHAVIORISM
Soft Behaviorism
o Does not deny or affirm the existence of mental events
o Limits its inquiries to observable, describable and quantifiable
behaviors
Logical Behaviorism
o Advocated by philosophers such as Gilbert Ryle
o Questions the logic of ‘mental’ language, not the ontological status of
the mind or mental events
BEHAVIORISM
Hard Behaviorism
o Defended by the psychologist B.F. Skinner
o Maintains that there is nothing beyond behavior, atoms in motion,
laws of physics etc.
o Denies the existence of the mind, mental events, thoughts etc.
Man is not made into a machine by analyzing his behavior in
mechanical terms. Early theories of behavior, as we have seen,
represented man as a push-pull automaton, close to the nineteenthcentury notion of a machine, but progress has been made. Man is a
machine in the sense that he is a complex system behaving in lawful
ways, but the complexity is extraordinary. His capacity to adjust to
contingencies of reinforcement will perhaps be eventually simulated by
machines, but this has not yet been done, and the living system thus
simulated will remain unique in other ways.
(Textbook, p 151)
BEHAVIORISM
Hard Behaviorism
There is no such thing as the mind, mental events, thoughts etc.
Physical
Taste of Ice
Cream
Neurones and
Chemicals in
the Brain
RECAP
Experience of
Seeing something
Red
Brain Activity in
Response to
Stimuli
Thought About
the Cow in the
Road
Physical and
Behavioural
Responses
THE MIND-BRAIN IDENTITY
THEORY
The Mind-Brain Identity Theory Maintains
Mental states (thoughts, sensations etc.) are identical to brain states
X=Y
Does not deny the existence of mental states
Mental language refers to real entities
These entities are neurological states
Brain states
Activity in R1
Neuron firing C1
Chemical event P
IDENTITY THEORY
=
Mental States
Thought about chair
Experience of seeing red
Remembering an old tune
Some Identity Relationships
Water
Lightning
Water is composed of
two parts hydrogen one
part oxygen (H2O)
Lightning is an electrical
discharge from cloud to
cloud to surface
The Morning Star
The morning star is the
evening star
George Orwell
(Author of 1984)
George Orwell is Eric
Arthur Blair
IDENTITY THEORY
Some Mental-Physical Identity Relationships
Experience of
Eating Ice-Cream
Neurological Event X
Thought About a
Pig in the Road
Neurological Event Y
Sensation of Pain
Neurological Event P
Desire to Eat Candy
Bar
Neurological Event Q
IDENTITY THEORY
FUNCTIONALISM
Functionalism
Minds and Mental States are properties of systems
The mind is not a thing, or reducible to any single part of a system
A system is any combination of objects that fulfils functions
A function is a specific task or process
Functions are completed using a process of input and output with
reference to mediating inner states
Functions include:
Carrying out mathematical equations
Giving lectures on functionalism
Brewing coffee at 6 a.m.
Maintaining temperatures
FUNCTIONALISM
Multiple Realizability
Any system that performs functions has a mind
A system can be composed of any combination of objects or materials
It does not matter how such functions are carried out
FUNCTIONALISM
Mental States
Mental States are features of a system
They are realized by, but not reducible to, lower level parts of the system
Mental states are defined by their causal role within a system
Today is Tuesday
It is 72 F
System Level
Lower Level
FUNCTIONALISM
I am low on
power
I am hungry
It is 6
a.m.
Systems and Functions
Input
Would you like a
cheeseburger?
System-level
Mental States
Am I Hungry?
No
Output
No Thank
you
Yes
Is It Cheese
Steak
Wednesday?
No
FUNCTIONALISM
Yes
No thanks I am
having a cheese
steak for dinner
Yes Please!
Systems and Functions
System-level
Mental States
Input
Maintain Room
Temperature at
72 F
Is room temp
above 72 F?
Temperature
Sensor
Activate
Heaters
Yes
Output
Heater
turned on
No
Is Heater on? Yes
Turn Heater
Off
No
Do Nothing
FUNCTIONALISM