Minds vs. Machines: Problems for the Computational View of the Mind

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From the course by The University of Edinburgh

Introduction to Philosophy

3428 ratings

The University of Edinburgh

Introduction to Philosophy

3428 ratings

This course will introduce you to some of the main areas of research in contemporary philosophy. Each module a different philosopher will talk you through some of the most important questions and issues in their area of expertise. We’ll begin by trying to understand what philosophy is – what are its characteristic aims and methods, and how does it differ from other subjects? Then we’ll spend the rest of the course gaining an introductory overview of several different areas of philosophy. Topics you’ll learn about will include: Epistemology, where we’ll consider what our knowledge of the world and ourselves consists in, and how we come to have it; Philosophy of science, where we’ll investigate foundational conceptual issues in scientific research and practice; Philosophy of Mind, where we’ll ask questions about what it means for something to have a mind, and how minds should be understood and explained; Political Philosophy, where we'll investigate whether we have an obligation to obey the law; Moral Philosophy, where we’ll attempt to understand the nature of our moral judgements and reactions – whether they aim at some objective moral truth, or are mere personal or cultural preferences, and; Metaphysics, where we’ll think through some fundamental conceptual questions about free will and the nature of reality. The development of this MOOC has been led by the University of Edinburgh's Eidyn research centre. To accompany 'Introduction to Philosophy', we are pleased to announce a tie-in book from Routledge entitled 'Philosophy for Everyone'. This course companion to the 'Introduction to Philosophy' course was written by the Edinburgh Philosophy team expressly with the needs of MOOC students in mind. 'Philosophy for Everyone' contains clear and user-friendly chapters, chapter summaries, glossary, study questions, suggestions for further reading and guides to online resources. Please click "Start Here" and navigate to the "Optional Reading" page for more information.

From the lesson

Minds, Brains and Computers

(Dr. Suilin Lavelle) If you’re reading this, then you’ve got a mind. But what is a mind, and what does it take to have one? Should we understand minds as sets of dispositions to behave in certain ways, as patterns of neural activation, or as akin to programmes that are run on the computational hardware of our brains? In this module, we’ll look at how and why recent philosophy of mind and psychology has embraced each of these options in turn, and think about the problems and prospects for each.

Functionalism and Functional Complexity4:11

Minds vs. Machines: The Turing Test and the Chinese Room11:01

Minds vs. Machines: Problems for the Computational View of the Mind4:10

Further Discussion4:55

Meet the Instructors

Dr. Dave Ward
Lecturer in Philosophy
University of Edinburgh
Professor Duncan Pritchard
Professor of Philosophy
University of Edinburgh
Professor Michela Massimi
Full Professor
Philosophy
Dr. Suilin Lavelle
Lecturer in Philosophy
University of Edinburgh
Dr. Matthew Chrisman
Reader in Philosophy
Philosophy
Dr. Allan Hazlett
Dr. Alasdair Richmond
Dr.
Philosophy
Guy Fletcher
Lecturer
Philosophy
Elinor Mason
Senior Lecturer
Philosophy

So where have we got to?

Well, we've looked at the history of why philosophers and

psychologists have come to think of minds in computational terms.

We've seen how it grew out of a rejection of Substance Dualism.

And then looking into identity theory as a particular

physicalist account of the mind and

the problem with multiple realisability that seems to afflict the identity theory.

We then looked at functionalism as a way of addressing.

If you like embracing the problem of multiple realisability,

of saying hey, it doesn't matter

that psychological states can be realized by lots of different physical things.

What matters is what those psychological states do.

We then saw how this led into the idea of minds being like computers, because we

start to get this division between what something is made of and what it does.

What it does, being the program that we give a computer to do.

And what it's made of, be that silicone, metal,

bits of wood, provided it can run the program it doesn't really matter.

But there are some tricky problems that still face the computational view.

One is the problem of aboutness that we introduced at the very start.

When we want to give an account of what human minds are like, we want to give

an account of how thoughts can be about things, how thoughts can have meaning.

And it's not entirely clear where we get this aboutness

in a particular computational view.

Secondly, we have the gaping hole of consciousness, and

I've not really addressed answers that philosophers have given to this question

in this particular lecture.

But I'll put some resources on the reading list ,if you would like to look it up.

In particular,

we're still left with what's know as the hard problem of consciousness.

The hard problem of consciousness is this.

What makes this particular lump of material, this particular lump and

mixture of chemicals and hormones conscious, and another lump not.

Because it's clear, that as human beings, we have brains and we have consciousness.

So the chemical mixture that is me, has consciousness.

But the chemical mixture that is something else, might not have consciousness.

Although we can give a functional analysis of how psychological states work,

philosophers have argued that this won't get us any closer to the question of

what it's like to be in particular states.

So although we can give an analysis in terms of inputs and outputs,

we haven't really gotten any closer to the question of analyzing the awareness or

the sense of experience that we have.

Finally, we might to question the metaphor computation itself.

You have to remember that a lot of these papers

were coming out at a time when computers were really hitting it big time.

Computers were said to give us all the answers to everything.

So philosophers thoughts have been shaped by the movements of the times,

particularly in computer technology.

And some people have argued that maybe that's restricted the way in which we're

thinking about the mind, just to what the most appropriate metaphor of the day is.

And it so happens that the most appropriate metaphor of the day

is computational analysis.

So some philosophers and

psychologists are suggesting that we step away from the computational metaphor.

And start to think of minds in other terms.

So that's a brief tour of some of the core issues in contemporary philosophy of mind.

If you'd like to find more about any of these topics,

there will be a reading list on the handouts for you to followup.

Philosophy of mind is a really exciting, contemporary, new field.

Particularly as philosophers are now working with psychologists and

neuroscientists, to try and find out more about the relation between the functional

description of psychological states, the inputs and outputs.

At the physical realizes in humans,

if you like the neural stuff, which runs these functions.

I hope that this talk has whetted your philosophical appetite to find out more.

And watch this space for more exciting news on philosophy of mind.

Thanks for listening.

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