PHILOSOPHY OF MIND
Homework: Testing the Theories
Instructions
For each proposition:
STEP 1: Decide whether the proposition is TRUE or FALSE according to the theory being discussed.
STEP 2: Explain why. Your explanation must refer to the central claim of the theory, not simply state whether you agree or disagree with the proposition.
STEP 3: When relevant, explain whether one of the thought experiments discussed in class creates a problem for the proposition.
I. CARTESIAN DUALISM
1.
If the body can exist without the mind, then the mind and body must be two different substances.
TRUE or FALSE? Explain your answer.
2.
If the mind is immaterial, then changes in the physical brain cannot affect what a person thinks or feels.
TRUE or FALSE? Explain your answer.
3.
According to Cartesian dualism, explaining everything that happens in the brain would completely explain everything that happens in the mind.
TRUE or FALSE? Explain your answer.
II. LOGICAL BEHAVIORISM
4.
If a person has all the behavioral dispositions associated with being in pain, then that person must be in pain.
TRUE or FALSE? Explain your answer.
5.
A person who feels pain but successfully suppresses every outward expression of pain is not in pain.
TRUE or FALSE? Explain your answer.
6.
According to logical behaviorism, two people who are behaviorally identical must be in the same mental state.
TRUE or FALSE? Explain your answer.
III. IDENTITY THEORY
7.
If two people are in the same mental state, they must be in exactly the same brain state.
TRUE or FALSE? Explain your answer.
8.
If scientists knew every physical fact about a person's brain, they would therefore know exactly what that person's experiences feel like from the inside.
TRUE or FALSE? Explain your answer.
9.
If a creature can experience pain without having a human brain or human neurophysiology, then human pain cannot simply be identical to a particular human brain state.
TRUE or FALSE? Explain your answer.
IV. FUNCTIONALISM
10.
If two different physical systems perform exactly the same causal function, they can be in the same mental state.
TRUE or FALSE? Explain your answer.
11.
If two people perform the same behavior, they must have the same mental state.
TRUE or FALSE? Explain your answer.
12.
If two people have the same mental state, they must produce exactly the same behavioral response.
TRUE or FALSE? Explain your answer.
V. EPIPHENOMENALISM
13.
If mental states are caused by physical processes but never cause physical processes, then the mind is causally ineffective.
TRUE or FALSE? Explain your answer.
14.
According to epiphenomenalism, your brain can cause you to experience pain, but your experience of pain cannot cause your brain to react.
TRUE or FALSE? Explain your answer.
15.
If a person says, "I am in pain," and the statement is caused by the person's experience of pain, then epiphenomenalism is false.
TRUE or FALSE? Explain your answer.
VI. MENTAL IRREDUCIBILITY / PRIMITIVE PROPERTIES
16.
If mental states cannot be completely described in behavioral, physical, or functional terms, then they must possess some irreducible property.
TRUE or FALSE? Explain your answer.
17.
If mental states emerge from physical processes, then mental states must be identical to physical states.
TRUE or FALSE? Explain your answer.
18.
A mental state can be causally related to physical processes without being reducible to a physical state.
TRUE or FALSE? Explain your answer.
BONUS — CROSS-THEORY QUESTIONS
These questions require you to move between theories rather than discuss only one.
19.
The Perfect Pretender is a problem for both logical behaviorism and identity theory for exactly the same reason.
TRUE or FALSE? Explain.
20.
Nagel's bat challenges the claim that knowing everything physical about an organism is sufficient for knowing everything about its mental life.
TRUE or FALSE? Explain.
21.
Lewis's Martian shows that having a human brain is not necessary for experiencing pain.
TRUE or FALSE? Explain.
22.
The Inverted Spectrum challenges the claim that two systems with the same functional organization must have exactly the same conscious experience.
TRUE or FALSE? Explain.
23.
If mental states are irreducible, then Cartesian dualism must be true.
TRUE or FALSE? Explain.
24.
If mental states are caused by physical processes, then mental states cannot themselves have causal powers.
TRUE or FALSE? Explain.
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