Philosophical Theories of Consciousness - Part IV
Anomalous Monism I
> Mental events are causes and effects
> All cause-effect sequences fall under strict laws
> Only physics provides strict laws
> Mental causes fall under physical laws
> Therefore, mental events are physical events
Anomalous Monism II
> Mental events have physical descriptions
> Mental events have mental descriptions
> Descriptive systems can be "incommensurable"
> they cross classify events
> they employ radically different regulative
principles
> rationality vs. "local measurement"
> Thus, reductionism fails
> Supervenience remains
Problems for Anomalous Monism
> The threat of epiphenomenalism
> can we ask why one event caused another?
> property efficacy vs. cause/effect relation
> Backdoor reductionism ?
> ontology vs. epistemology again
> Neglect of consciousness
> constraints of rational interpretation
> does consciousness fall under these ?
Digression - Eliminative Materialism
> Replacement instead of reduction
> How pathetic is Folk Psychology ?
> Is EM relevant to consciousness ?
Bio-Emergence (Searle)
> Consciousness is a biological phenomenon
> Causal powers vs. formal structure
> Actuality vs. simulation
> What causal powers matter ?
> What explanatory force ?
Quantum Emergence
> Systems vs. components
> Quantum "entanglement"
> Irreducible emergent properties
> But is this emergence ?
> What explanatory force ?
From Ontology to Epistemology
> "Hard problems" and "explantory gaps"
> Just an illusion ?
> What if the hard problem is too hard ?
> Mysterianism
Varieties of Mysterianism
> Mere illusion and temporary
> Mere illusion and permanent
> Cognitive closure
> the limits of mind
> concept formation
( > Methodological mysterianism)
From Ontology to Structure
> Intentionality
> the mark of the mental
> intentional "inexistence"
> Representational Mind
> Turing's map from syntax to semantics
> goals, game trees and inner maps
> relevance and frames
> the Chinese Room again
> The "idea fallacy" fallacy
Representation and Consciousness
> Is that all there is ?
> "pure" sensations
> qualia again
> Ways things could be
> consciousness presents a "possible world"
> Representation as a function of consciousness
Represenational Theories of Consciousness
> Taxonomy
> FOR vs. HOR
> HOT vs. HOE
> Actualist vs. Dispositionalist
Rough Taxonomic Chart