PHIL 255, Philosophy of Mind

Review Questions for Exam 3, April 3 (final list)

A. 1-sentence answers

What is phenomenal consciousness?
What is the Higher Order Thought theory of consciousness?
What is the transparency of consciousness?
What is emergence?
What is a semantic pointer?
What is recursive binding?
What is empathy?
What is determinism?
What is theological determinism?
What is the difference between hard determinism (compatibilism) and soft determinism (incompatibilism)?
What is Frankfurt's hierarchy of desires idea of free will?
What is the problem of persistence?
What is the difference between transcendental and deflationary views of the self?
How do mind-brain identity theory and functionalism differ on the question of life after death?
What is the difference between internalist and externalist accounts of intentionality?
What is conceptual role semantics?
What is the causal/informational theory of intentionality?

B. 1-paragraph answers

How does the PANIC theory of consciousness differ from the HOT theory? State 3 differences (2 marks +2+1).
State two objections to the HOT theory (3) and possible replies to those objections (2).
State two arguments for first order representationalism (3+2).
What are the three mechanisms proposed by the semantic pointer competition theory of consciousness (2+2+1)?
What are five phenomena that need to be explained by a neural theory of consciousness?
What are four reasons why people are inclined to believe in free will?
What is the brain argument against free will, including the main evidence behind it (4); and what is one counterargument (1)?
What are five answers to the problem of persistence?
What is the multilevel self? Describe 4 mechanisms.
Give 2 arguments for the deflationary (no-) self view(4), and one counterargument (1).
How do the twin earth and swampman thought experiments yield different conclusions about intentionality (2+2+1)?
According to Thagard, what are the four sources of meaning in neural representations (4+1)?
How does neurosemantics combine internal and external sources of meaning (2+2+1)?

C. 1-page answers

Is consciousness a brain process? Discuss critically. Provide 4 reasons for answering yes, 4 reasons for answering no, and an overall evaluation.
Do people have free will? Discuss critically. Provide 4 reasons for answering yes, 4 reasons for answering no, and an overall evaluation.
What is the self? Consider 4 reasons for one view, 4 reasons for an alternative view, and provide an overall evaluation.
What are the origins of intentionality? Consider 3 reasons for one view, 3 reasons for an alternative view, and provide an overall evaluation.

Review Questions for Exam 2, March 6 (final list)

The exam will consist of five 1-sentence answers, five 1-paragraph answers, and one 1-page answer. You will have some choice among questions to answer. Make your answers as clear and detailed as you can. Give examples.

A. 1-sentence answers

What is behaviorism?
What is the conclusion of Wittgenstein's private language argument?
What is the qualia objection to behaviorism?
What is the difference between theory-of-mind understanding of other minds and simulation?
What is empathy?
What is the Turing test?
What is the difference between symbolic and connectionist approaches to machine intelligence?
How is functionalism different from the mind-brain identity theory?
What is a mechanism?
What is epiphenomenalism?
What is direct realism?
What is a mental image?

B. 1-paragraph answers

State and evaluate Wittgenstein's private language argument.
What is Sellars's objection to behaviorism?
What is the argument for other minds based on analogy? State one counterargument.
What is the argument for other minds based on inference to the best explanation? State one counterargument.
How can empathy result from both theory of mind and simulation?
State and evaluate Searle's Chinese room argument.
State and evaluate the silicon chip replacement thought experiment.
State and evaluate the causal argument for functionalism.
State and evaluate the multiple realization argument for functionalism.
What are propositional attitudes and why do eliminativists doubt their existence?
What is the argument from illusion and what philosophical theory of perception does it support?
How are images different from percepts?

C. 1-page answers

Evaluate the plausibility of behaviorism as an alternative to other forms of materialism? Discuss critically.
What are arguments for and against the claim that machine intelligence will be achieved? Provide an overall evaluation.
Critically discuss whether dualism or materialism provides a better account of mental causation.
Is folk psychology a good theory of mind, or will it be eliminated by neuroscience? Discuss critically.

Review Questions for Exam 1, Jan. 30 (complete)

A. 1-sentence answers

What are the three main branches of philosophy?
What is inference to the best explanation?
What are qualia?
What are propositional attitudes?
What is the difference between substance dualism and property dualism?
What is Leibniz's law?
What is intentionality?
What are phenomenal properties?
What is the intensional fallacy?
What is epiphenomenalism?
What is the difference between a priori and a posteriori identity statements?
What is solipsism?
What are two kinds of idealism?
What is panpsychism?

B. 1-paragraph answers

What is the difference between deductive, inductive, and explanatory arguments. Give examples.
How does philosophy differ from psychology?
How is Leibniz's law used to defend dualism? State one response (i. e. reply to the argument).
What is the modal argument for dualism?State one response.
What is the inverted spectrum argument for dualism?State one response.
What is the zombie argument for dualism? State one response.
What is the knowledge argument for dualism? State one response.
How does the zombie argument challenge mind-brain identity? How can the identity theorist respond?
How does multiple realizability challenge mind-brain identity?
What is Berkeley's main argument for idealism and a response to it?
What is the nothing-from-nothing argument for panpsychism and a response to it?

C. 1-page answers

What is Thagard's super argument for dualism? Does this argument succeed? Discuss critically.
Does the existence of explanatory gaps show that dualism is true? Discuss critically.
What is Thagard's super argument for mind-brain identity? Does this argument succeed? Discuss critically.
What is a belief? Compare the theories about the nature of beliefs given by dualism, mind-brain identity, and panpsychism. Critically assess the plausibility of these answers.

PHIL 255, home page

Paul Thagard

Computational Epistemology Laboratory.

This page updated Mar. 31, 2014