Tag: Philosophy of Mind
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Perception and “illusion” with Dr. Louise Moody
by Daniel A. Kaufman I talk with Dr. Louise Moody about perception, “illusion style” arguments, and J.L. Austin. Louise has a PhD in philosophy and is an independent philosopher and feminist campaigner. [Note: There are points at which Louise’s mic cuts out for a second, but it does not substantially interfere with watching the discussion.]…
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Course Notes – Paul Churchland, “Eliminative Materialism and the Propositional Attitudes”
by Daniel A. Kaufman https://ruccs.rutgers.edu/images/personal-zenon-pylyshyn/class-info/FP2012_readings/Churchland_EliminativeMaterialsm.pdf In the philosophy of mind, apart from sensations, with their perplexing “qualia,” intentional states, the so-called “propositional attitudes,” have proven materialism’s biggest headache. Materialism’s greatest hope, functionalism – and particularly its computational variety – ran into trouble with the propositional attitudes by way of the Chinese (or at least, one…
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Why The Free Will Problem Isn’t One
by Daniel A. Kaufman First of all, the “Free Will Problem” is a stupid name. I mean, do I have to think there is such a thing as a “will” in order to believe in Free Will? Or “freedom,” beyond that of being able to go to the mall, if I want to or not,…
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The Blank Slate – It isn’t what Pinker thinks
By Paul So In Steven Pinker’s popular book The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature, Pinker characterizes the Blank State as “the idea that the human mind has no inherent structure and can be inscribed at will by society or ourselves.” Pinker is characterizing the loose set of views, commonly held by today’s…
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Vision is (probably) Informationally Encapsulated from Flavor (Part II)
By Daniel Tippens Some notes on attention and sensory penetration I intend to argue that vision is informationally encapsulated (just “encapsulated” from here on out) from flavor. In the last post, we discussed the ideas of encapsulation and sensory penetration. The notion of encapsulation that I am working with takes place at the level of…
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This Week’s Special: Jerry Fodor’s “Special Sciences (Or: the Disunity of Science as a Working Hypothesis)”
By Daniel A. Kaufman http://fitelson.org/woodward/fodor.pdf On tap this week is one of the most influential essays in the philosophy of science, since the Second World War: Jerry Fodor’s “Special Sciences,” which appeared in the journal Synthese, in 1974. The paper did two very important things. First, it struck a crippling blow against a certain kind…
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Vision is (probably) Informationally Encapsulated from Flavour (Part I)
By: Daniel Tippens Introduction Let’s understand our sensory systems in a common sense way to refer to the 5 senses we are familiar with: vision, touch, audition, and so on. A sensory system, understood in this paper, is characterized by certain sense organs, specific brain-areas dedicated to processing the information that those sense organs receive,…
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Panpsychism – is it testable?
By Paul So In recent years (late 90’s to the 21st century), Panpsychism has been enjoying some resurgence in philosophy. David Chalmers, Galen Strawson, Thomas Nagel, and others are seriously considering Panpsychism as a viable solution for the Mind-Body problem. But philosophers aren’t alone. In the natural sciences, some prominent scientists, even the well-known Christof…
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A Discussion with Ian Ground on Wittgenstein
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AH-EeZipa1U My discussion with Ian Ground, of Newcastle University. Originally aired as a part of the Sofia Channel, on MeaningofLife.TV. http://meaningoflife.tv/programs/current/sophia