Joe Lau's wiki: Courses/2006a PHIL 2220 Introduction

Introduction

• [Required] mental states
• http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/philo/faculty/block/papers/msb.html (section 1.3 to 2.1)

Three problems

• intentionality, consciousness, freewill

One solution?

• All three phenomena involve the processing of information.
• Complex information processing best explained by computations.
• Computation = rule-based operations on symbols.
  • STR_REPLACE("CAT","T","R")
  • Turing computability: http://wap03.informatik.fh-wiesbaden.de/weber1/turing/tm.html

The computational approach

• Mental representations = symbols in the brain

Cummins (1989) Meaning & Mental Representation MIT Press.

• Mental processes = computational operations on mental representations
  • Mental imgery

Explaining the mind

• Intentionality: meaningful representations
• Consciousness: indexical repesentations
• Freewill: coherent representations

Alternatives?

• Substance dualism
• Idealism
• Other theories

Key: Which approach offers the best explanation of mental phenomena?