Personhood
What is speciesism?
Arbitrary discrimination on the basis of species.
What is Epiphenomenalism?
The idea that mental events have physical causes but no physical effects.
What is Princess Elisabeth's objection to Descartes?
The interaction problem: How is it possible for an immaterial substance to interact with a material substance?
What are qualia?
What are some of the assumptions underlying transhumanism?
1. It is possible to make an electronic person
2. Is is desirable to be an electronic person - i.e. electronic people are superior to biological people
3. If I become an electronic person through uploading, that person is ME
What is the violinist argument for the permissibility of abortion?
Someone is kidnapped and hooked up to a violinist. They need to stay hooked up to the violinist for nine months or else the violinist will die. This is clearly a violation of personal autonomy. Unwanted pregnancy poses a similar problem for autonomy.
What is Searle's Chinese room experiment?
A person can be given instructions that, if followed, allow them to perfectly translate English into Chinese. However, they do not actually understand Chinese. They behave as though they understand, while not understanding. So it follows that behavior and understanding are distinct.
What is physicalism?
The idea that mental states are identical to brain states.
How was Nida- Rumelin argue against functionalism?
Pseduonormal vision: same functional states, different qualitative experiences.
What is an objection to uploading?
The branching problem.
Equal consideration of interest
What is Descartes' argument that animals are not conscious?
Animals move automatically. They are unconscious automata.
What is Descartes' modal argument for dualism?
1. I can imagine a world where my mind exists but my body does not
2. God is capable of doing anything I can imagine.
3. If X can exist without Y, then X is not Y.
4. Therefore, my mind is not my body.
What is Jackson's knowledge argument?
We can have complete physical knowledge without having knowledge of qualia. It follows that there is something non-physical about qualia.
Why is personal identity important?
1. Makes it possible to anticipate things, fear things
2. Makes it possible to feel things about our own past actions
3. Morally important - keeping promises, paying debts
What is a possible objection to Don Marquis' Future Like Ours account?
Questioning the relationship between the fetus and myself. Is the fetus really me?
What is Chalmer's definition of consciousness?
The ability to have subjective experiences.
What type of functionalism does Armstrong provide an account of?
Conceptual Functionalism - Giving an analytic account of brain states as functional states
What is dual-aspect monism?
The idea that there is one substance that has both physical and conscious properties.
According to Dworkin, why is autonomy important?
Because it preserves integrity
What is the difference between the desire account and the future like ours account? Why do they lead to different stances on the permissibility of abortion?
FLO - it is wrong to kill something with a FLO - fetuses have a FLO - therefore it is wrong to kill a fetus.
Desire Account - it is wrong to kill something if they desire to live - fetuses have no capacity for desire - therefore it is not wrong to kill a fetus
What does it mean for something to be a conscious automata?
They have experiences, but those experiences do not have any physical effects.
Is JCC Smart giving an analytic or synthetic definition of mental states?
Synthetic - he is arguing that empirical evidence will show that mental states are brain states
What is Eliminativism as a response to the hard problem of consciousness?
Denies that there is such a thing as consciousness - and so there is no hard problem of consciousness.
According to Epicurus, why isn't death bad?
Because for something to be bad for us we must be able to experience it. We cannot experience death - because we are not there to experience it - so it cannot be bad.