Physicalist Reductions of Consciousness
- Created by: Olivia Grace Matthews
- Created on: 14-01-16 17:57
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- Physicalist Reductions of Consciousness
- Reductive Analysis
- Explains one thing in terms of another more basic thing
- e.g Water is actually molecules of H2O
- Conceptual/Analytic: linguistic. Explaining meaning of terms in other terms
- Metaphysical: Factual involves explaining actual things in terms of other things
- Analytic Reduction
- To do with meaning
- Metaphysical Reduction
- About what things are made of
- No such thing as the mind by itself
- Behaviourism
- B.F Skinner
- Mental language refers to pattern of behaviour
- 'Michael likes pizza'...'Michael often eats pizza
- Functionalism
- Mental language refers to physical processes which link sensory input to behavioural output
- Treats the mind purely in terms of turning information into behaviour
- Tries to interpret mental language in terms of neural processes
- Type Identity Thesis
- Mental types analysed properly are actually physical types
- Steve's fear is specific kind of neurological activity
- Under type identity thesis Steve can feel fear even if he sees or does nothing
- Analytic reductions say 'consciousness' is a bad word for some physical processes
- Constitutive reductions say consciousness is real but not basic
- Constitutive accounts of mind
- Thoughts/perceptions are constituted by physical entities or processes
- Thoughts emerge from the behaviour of electricity in the brain
- Token-Identity Thesis
- Every mental 'token' is identical with some physical state
- We don't know if consciousness emerges from brain states
- Reductive Analysis
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