PHLA10H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Type Physicalism, Color Blindness, Vitalism
Non-Dualist Approaches to Mind
!-Mind/Brain Identity Theory (IT)
!-Vitalism and the mystery of life
!!Identity theory says that it is a scientific theory that the mind is the brain,
just like life is just chemistry, we will eventually have overwhelming evidence that mind
states are just brain states
!!-We already have huge amounts of this evidence
!!-example: vegetative ... something; example of correlation between mind
state and brain state
!!
Mental causation - princess
Identity theory explains correlations; integrates better with rest of our scientific
knowledge
!
Problems?
Problem of Alien Minds (imagine tomorrow a spaceship arrives from distant planet and
the aliens start talking to us and reveal their advanced science, then we discover that
they dont have brains. Their behaviour is based on some other system. Computers
artifical intelligent, dont have brains. A brain is a neurochemical device that
communicates with itself to relay messages, computer systems are completely different.
Identity theory is not a metaphor, it says that we will discover a brain state identical to
mental state. Octopi and birds are intelligent but have different brains from humans,
they do see to have thoughts and feelings however. Anything a chimpanzee can do, a
bird can do but their brains are different);
Problem of Consciousness (imagine that you are colour blind. The question is, how can
you tell a colour-blind person what red and green look like? Birds have extra colour
sensors in their retinas, more than humans. What would the extra colours look like? We
don’t know. Why is that a problem for the identity theory? We can scientifically study
their brains and retinas but still not know what colours they are seeing. Some see black
and white and study brain extensive and know everything. But do they know what red
looks like? When they see a tomato, they will be surprised. But if identity theory is true,
knowing everything about the brain would mean you would know everything you can
see, it’s identical.)
Charles Pierce
!-the types and token distinction --> how many e’s in this line? Those are tokens
!of a letter-type
!-horses are a type of animal, individual horses are tokens of the type
!-IT identifies mental tokens with brain tokens
!-mental types with brain types; the type of mental state, pain, is identical to a
!certain type of brain state
Document Summary
Identity theory says that it is a scienti c theory that the mind is the brain, just like life is just chemistry, we will eventually have overwhelming evidence that mind states are just brain states. We already have huge amounts of this evidence. Example: vegetative something; example of correlation between mind state and brain state. Identity theory explains correlations; integrates better with rest of our scienti c knowledge. Problem of alien minds (imagine tomorrow a spaceship arrives from distant planet and the aliens start talking to us and reveal their advanced science, then we discover that they dont have brains. Their behaviour is based on some other system. A brain is a neurochemical device that communicates with itself to relay messages, computer systems are completely different. Identity theory is not a metaphor, it says that we will discover a brain state identical to mental state.
