Deck 10: How Is Your Mind Related to Your Body?

Question 1

What is/are the central question(s) in the part of philosophy of mind often called the "problem of other minds"?

A) Do other people (and things like robots or fish) have mental states?
B) Are other people's (things') mental states similar to yours?
C) How can we know whether other people (things) have mental states and whether they are similar to yours?
D) All of the above

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Which of the following is/are the central question(s) of the mind-body problem?

A) Do minds exist?
B) Why are minds always connected to bodies?
C) How are mental states and processes related to physical and biological and behavioral phenomena?
D) All of the above

Answer 2

C

Question 3

The mind-body problem falls squarely in the part of philosophy known as

A) metaphysics.
B) phenomenology.
C) ethics.
D) aesthetics.

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Which question(s) in philosophy of mind, from among the following, is/are epistemological?

A) Do other people (and things like robots or fish) have mental states?
B) Are other people's (things') mental states similar to yours?
C) How can we know whether other people (things) have mental states and whether they are similar to yours?
D) All of the above

Question 5

__________ is widely considered to be the first "modern" philosopher.

A) Gilbert Ryle
B) Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia
C) René Descartes
D) John Locke

Question 6

Descartes believed that

A) he could imagine his mind existing without his body.
B) he could imagine his body existing without his mind.
C) his body and his mind are different things.
D) All of the above

Question 7

Owing to the existence of properties such as consciousness, intentionality, and rationality, Descartes concluded

A) there must be a mysterious, divine spark within human beings.
B) there must be another, fundamentally different category of things in the universe-minds.
C) minds must be more metaphysically fundamental than bodies.
D) All of the above

Question 8

The metaphysical theory that claims that minds and matter are fundamentally different kinds of things is often called

A) substance dualism.
B) mind-matter dualism.
C) substance dichotomism.
D) mind-matter dichotomism.

Question 9

Descartes believed that the

A) mental is derived from the physical.
B) physical is derived from the mental.
C) division between the mental and the physical arose with the existence of human beings.
D) division between the mental and the physical goes back to the origin of the universe.

Question 10

Regarding the causal interaction between the mind and body, Descartes held that the

A) mind could causally affect the body.
B) body could causally affect the mind.
C) body could causally affect the mind, and the mind could causally affect the body.
D) neither the mind nor the body could causally affect the other.

Question 11

__________ objected to substance dualism by wondering how-if minds and matter are totally different kinds of things (i.e., metaphysically distinct substances)-it is possible for them to causally interact with one another.

A) Gilbert Ryle
B) Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia
C) René Descartes
D) John Locke

Question 12

Descartes believed that minds exist in

A) time, but not in space.
B) space, but not in time.
C) both time and space.
D) neither time nor space.

Question 13

Descartes speculated that the mind and body interact in the

A) pineal gland.
B) cerebral cortex.
C) corpus callosum.
D) Wernicke area.

Question 14

Which aspect(s)of Cartesian dualism, from among the following, make(s) the problem of other minds exceedingly difficult to solve?

A) Since minds are not physical substances, they cannot be explained by the laws of physics.
B) Since minds are not physical substances, they cannot be perceived (e.g., seen or felt), leaving no way of determining whether other people have them.
C) Since bodies are not mental substances, they cannot be known through introspection.
D) All of the above

Question 15

The mind-body problem is relevant to

A) all animals.
B) only mammals.
C) only higher mammals.
D) only human beings.

Question 16

__________ vividly illustrated the difficulty of determining whether other people's mental states are similar to yours through an "inverted spectrum" thought experiment. In this experiment, what other people experience when looking at a Red Delicious apple, inverted spectrum people experience when looking at blueberries.

A) Gilbert Ryle
B) Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia
C) René Descartes
D) John Locke

Question 17

__________ proposed a memorably disparaging epithet for the dualist view, whereby the mind is a "ghost in the machine"

A) Gilbert Ryle
B) Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia
C) René Descartes
D) John Locke

Question 18

Verificationism holds that a declarative sentence is literally meaningful if and only if it is

A) true.
B) unambiguous.
C) either true or false.
D) either true or false or unambiguous.

Question 19

For verificationists, a sentence can be literally meaningful

A) by virtue of the meanings of the words it employs.
B) by observation.
C) Both a and b
D) None of the above

Question 20

If verificationism is true, then

A) dualism must be verified, before being accepted.
B) dualism must also be true.
C) dualism must be false.
D) we have no way of knowing whether dualism is true or false.

Question 21

According to verificationists, claims about the mental states of other people are verified by

A) observing their brain waves with an electroencephalogram (EEG).
B) observing their behavior.
C) having people report what they are experiencing (i.e., what they are thinking, feeling, etc.).
D) All of the above

Question 22

Which of the following claims is at the core of philosophical behaviorism?

A) Although there are two fundamental substances (mental and physical), they can both be observed and verified.
B) Although there are two fundamental substances (mental and physical), only the physical aspect can be observed and verified.
C) the meaning of sentences attributing mental states to an individual can be analyzed into a set of sentences about (i) how the individual would behave and (ii) what the individual would experience under a variety of circumstances.
D) The meaning of sentences attributing mental states to an individual can be analyzed into a set of sentences about how the individual would behave under a variety of circumstances.

Question 23

The behaviorist's answer to how mental states and processes are related to physical, biological, and behavioral phenomena is that mental states and processes are

A) behavioral dispositions.
B) equivalent to behaviors themselves.
C) mere epiphenomena.
D) emergent properties arising from the physical.

Question 24

Which of the following is the behaviorists' answer to whether other people have mental states?

A) Yes, since they experience pretty much the same things as you experience.
B) Yes, since they have pretty much the same behavioral dispositions that you have.
C) No, since we can have no idea whether they experience the same things as you experience.
D) It's impossible to know, since we can have no idea whether they experience the same things as you experience.

Question 25

According to the philosophical behaviorists, if something behaves like a normal human under a wide variety of conditions, then we

A) may tentatively assume it has mental states, though we cannot be sure.
B) can know it has mental states.
C) can perform behavioral analysis on such behavior and then determine whether it has mental states.
D) All of the above

Question 26

Behaviorists dispatch the inverted-spectrum problem by claiming

A) inverted-spectrum people are a mere anomaly.
B) inverted-spectrum people display their inversion through behavior.
C) inverted-spectrum people are impossible.
D) there is no evidence inverted-spectrum people exist.

Question 27

__________ challenges behaviorism by posing a thought experiment in which an actor perfectly exhibits the behavior characteristic of someone in pain even though he is not.

A) Gilbert Ryle
B) Daniel Dennett
C) Hilary Putnam
D) Ned Block

Question 28

__________ challenges behaviorism by asking you to imagine that you need an operation and an anesthesiologist offers you a choice of two drugs: a traditional one that induces a coma-like state where the patient is completely unconscious and a new product that merely leads to temporary paralysis.

A) Gilbert Ryle
B) Daniel Dennett
C) Hilary Putnam
D) Ned Block

Question 29

For mind-brain identity theorists, the question "Which brain states are identical with which mental states" can only be answered by

A) empirical science.
B) noetic science.
C) a priori reasoning.
D) metaphysics.

Question 30

Mind-brain identity theorists answer the question posed by the problem of other minds (i.e., do other people have mental states?) by which of the following claims?

A) No, they don't, since we cannot acquire knowledge of mental states.
B) No, they don't, since we have not acquired knowledge of the brain.
C) Yes, they do, if they have mental states like yours.
D) Yes, they do, if they have brains like yours.

Question 31

Of the following objections, which has/have been raised against the mind-brain identity theory?

A) A pattern of firing of neurons seems to be a very different thing from an experience of a blue rectangle.
B) If the brains of other creatures are not like ours, then they don't have mental states like ours.
C) Neither an extraterrestrial nor a robot can think about math problems.
D) All of the above

Question 32

Functionalists believe that a mental state can be entirely characterized by describing

A) its characteristic causes.
B) what effects it has on other mental states.
C) what behaviors it can produce on its own or when combined with other mental states.
D) All of the above

Question 33

Functionalist maintains that pain is anything that plays the pain-role in a complex causal system that captures our widely shared, common-sense beliefs about

A) pain.
B) pain and other mental states.
C) pain, other mental states, and environmental stimuli.
D) pain, other mental states, environmental stimuli, and behavior.

Question 34

Functionalism attempted to avoid the problems of behaviorism by accounting for, in addition to behavior,

A) other mental state terms, like "believes," "wants," and so on.
B) the fundamental difference between brain states and mental states.
C) the fundamental identity between brain states and mental states.
D) the dependency of mental states on brain states.

Question 35

For a functionalist, if a creature has a physical and chemical composition very different from ours,

A) it is impossible for it to have mental states.
B) it is impossible for it to have mental states like ours.
C) it is no obstacle at all for it to having mental states, just not like ours.
D) is no obstacle at all for it to have mental states like ours.

Question 36

__________ has criticized functionalism for being mere "folk psychology."

A) Gilbert Ryle
B) Daniel Dennett
C) Hilary Putnam
D) Paul Churchland

Question 37

Eliminativists think that common-sense mental states, including beliefs, desires, and pains, are

A) brain states; they are identical to the mental states to which they correspond.
B) emergent properties; they arise from certain underlying mental states.
C) like witches; they are the posits of a mistaken folk theory, and we should come to grips with the fact that they do not exist.
D) mere epiphenomena; they appear real to us, but have no causal efficacy.

Question 38

__________ noted that the current adult population of China is now roughly the same as the number of neurons in a human brain. He then suggested that, according to functionalism, it should be possible to build an analog of a human brain using one Chinese person to play the role of each neuron, whereby this elaborate system of a billion Chinese people would feel pain.

A) Ned Block
B) Daniel Dennett
C) Hilary Putnam
D) Paul Churchland

Question 39

Besides the physical properties studied by physics, panpsychism holds that ordinary matter also has

A) mystical, unknowable properties.
B) a primitive form of consciousness.
C) a highly advanced form of pure mind.
D) All of the above

Question 40

A person's mental state is conscious when

A) he can detect the state by introspection.
B) that mental state occurs within a living being.
C) his brain waves are detectable with an EEG.
D) All of the above

Question 41

Explain Cartesian dualism and Princess Elisabeth's objection to it.

Question 42

Explain the concept of pain from the point of view of a behaviorist. What objections can be raised against this approach to pain and other similar experiences?

Question 43

The mind-brain identity theory has been said to be "chauvinistic." Explain what this means and how analytic functionalism attempts to avoid such criticism.

Question 44

Explain eliminativism and psycho-functionalism, focusing on their relation to folk psychology.

Question 45

Summarize Ned Block's famous objection to functionalism. How might a functionalist respond?