Exploring Identity, Knowledge, and the Mind: A Comprehensive Guide
Personal Identity and Persistence •Personal Identity: question of person persistence across time, even through change. Theory 1: Same Matter • Matter seems neither sufficient nor necessary for identity.
• Counterexamples: Matter “recycling”, and limb loss, normal growth. Theory 2: Same Animal • “One thinker” argument: Here’s a thinking animal, but there’s only one thinker here, so I’m a thinking animal. If I’m this animal, I persist when and only when this animal persists. Theory 3: Same Brain • Claim: Only the brain is important to the identity of a living animal. Personality, memory, and cognition
Theory 4: Psychological Continuity (John Locke) • Psychological features (memory, personality, etc.) matter for persistence. • Thought experiment: Brain connectome “reprogramming”. Fission Cases• Cases of two persons each continuous and connected to a single past person. Suggests fission is death. • Responses: Parfit’s view (we care about continuity, not survival) and “Multiple occupancy”.
1.
Knowledge as Justified True Belief (JTB): – Knowledge is traditionally defined as a belief that is both true and justified.
2. Gettier Problem: – Cases where one has a justified true belief, but it isn’t considered as knowledge.
It challenges the JTB concept of knowledge. (clock broken))
3. Fallibilism – Knowledge can exist even if it’s logically possible for the belief to turn out false. This means our beliefs could be mistaken, but we can still have knowledge. (earth orbits sun)
4. Descartes’ Demon & BIV Hypotheses: These are skepticism hypotheses suggesting all our perceptions could be illusions created by a deceiving entity (Descartes’ Demon) or a simulated experience (Brain-in-a-Vat hypothesis). (suggest doubt knowledge)
5. Memory and LBIV Hypothesis: – Memory can be seen as evidence against BIV hypothesis, but this is nullified by LBIV hypothesis that states we have always been a BIV.
6. Closure Principle and Argument – The principle suggests we can expand our justified beliefs by identifying their logical consequences, leading to the Closure Argument which applies this to skepticism about the external world.
7. Responses to Closure Argument: These are possible ways of addressing the Closure Argument: rejecting the premises, providing evidence against skeptical hypotheses, Contextualism, and admitting defeat. 8. Popperism & Inductive Skepticism:
Scientific philosophy arguing that knowledge grows via conjectures and refutations, leading to inductive skepticism due to potential misinterpretation of predictions (e.G. Newton’s law Uranus orbit, explain than reject)
Hume Fork: Differentiates between relations of ideas (logical, analytical, non-empirical) & matters of fact (based on observation/experience, assumes uniformity of nature) (LN).
The issue of induction: The problem with relying on the uniformity of nature 4 conclusions, directly relating 2 Hume’s distinction (LN).
Thought experiments: Purely mental tools, fitting into Hume’s division by allowing exploration of relations of ideas (LN).
Empiricism
The theory that knowledge is primarily gained through sensory experience & experimentation, aligns with Hume’s matters of fact (LN).
Strawson’s defence of induction: A counter-argument 2 Hume’s critique, pertinent 2 the discussions on empiricism & the uniformity of nature (LN).
Falk’s armchair science: Highlights the role of thought experiments & mental exercises in gaining knowledge, aligning with Hume’s relations of ideas (LN).
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Conspiracy Theory
Explains major social and political circumstances as secret plots by two or more powerful entities.
Epistemic Motive: Pattern recognition, finding meaning, overestimation of causal reasoning, intolerance of uncertainty.
Social Motive: Narcissism, reinforcement of group value.
Evolutionary Psychology:
Error Management Theory
Sexual Misperception Bias: Males avoid false negatives, Females avoid false positives.
Warped Epistemology:
Unfalsifiable, accommodates lack of evidence and refutation by expanding the conspiracy or crediting conspirators.
Boundary’s Rule of Thumb:
Hanlon’s Razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained.
Boundary’s Recipe: Official story, refuting official story, cui bono, lack of evidence is warped epistemology, critics are involved or duped.
Mind Theories
Dualism: Non-
physical mind (“soul”, “spirit”) interacts with the physical body/brain.
Physicalism: Everything is physical or emergent from the physical.
Identity Theory: A subcategory of Physicalism, mental states can be reduced to (identified with) brain states.
Functionalism: Mental states are multiply realizable and substrate independent. What matters is the functional role of the physical system.
Princess Elizabeth Problem: Critique of Dualism, physical/non-physical interaction seems to violate laws of physics (conservation of energy).
Extended Body/Senses
Example: Blind people using a cane as a sensory extension. Hearing aids are another instance of extended senses.
Extended Cognition
The “skin and skull” barrier: Some view this as the boundary separating our mind from the world.
Tetris analogy: From merely watching to playing without a controller, this illustrates the concept of extended cognition.
Offloading
A method of reducing cognitive stress.
Examples: Using a stick to assist walking, counting on fingers, or writing things down to remember.
4 cases of calculation: Abacus (conservative), imagining abacus (cognition + tool), imagining finger and abacus, and neural implant (running abacus simulation).
Parity Principle
Whether the process is inside or outside the brain, it’s still part of the cognition system.
Active Externalism
A coupled system acting as a cognitive system.
Extended cognition vs. Extended consciousness, portability vs. Reliability.
From Cognition to Mind
Example: Inga (normal brain function) vs. Otto (external information storage).
Objections
Issues like reliability, constancy (loss or change of external data), quality/bandwidth limitations, and perceptual access/phenomenology.
Criteria for Extended Belief
Consistency in life, easy availability, automatic endorsement.
Ethics
Removal of an extension is a violation, like reblinding a person or causing memory loss.
Education
Test the entire person, including their extensions.