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Why is spectrum invasion a counter argument to functionalist arguments?

Spectrum inversion states that there are different mental processes going on in the mind that vary from individual to individual even though they are represented as a particular physical process. For example imagine that you see colors in exactly the opposite way as I do. Where I see green, you see red. Yet you have been conditioned to identify the color red as green. Externally, it seems as if we both are experiencing the same color but internally we are not. Additionally, when functionalist argue that “what makes something a mental state of a particular type does not depend on its internal constitution but rather on the way it functions,” is thus proven false. Given the example, since color perception in both of us is functionally the same, but our mental processes are different, functionalism must be wrong.

For a better understanding of this question, please see:

http://philosophy103.tk/post/100077292050/functionalism

http://philosophy103.tk/post/100258927965/hey-i-wanted-to-know-what-was-blackbox

http://philosophy103.tk/post/100018300810

#spectrum inversion #qualia #functionalism #submission

A priori & A posteriori

A priori:

A statement is knowable a priori if it can be known without having any experience or conducting any experiment.

(e.g. all bachelors are unmarried)

A posteriori:

A statement that is knowable a posteriori is known on the basis of experience.

(e.g. it is raining outside now)

#A priori & A posteriori

Falsificationism— Karl Popper

Karl Popper proposed the concept of Falsificationism, if the statements cannot be found to be false, then the hypothesis is accepted as provisionally true. These are known as tautology statements. Popper applies this test of falsifiable rather than Ayer theory of verifiability.

Ayer rebuttals this by saying that one is never testing a single hypothesis. Rather when one test a hypothesis they also at least test one but several other assumptions; If you don't reach a conclusion, it simply implies that one of the assumptions is false.

#falsification

philosophyprofessorquotes

I think the meaning of life is to realize that the question “What is the meaning of life?” is not a very meaningful question.

Ladies and gentlemen… I present you with our October 31st lecture in under 5 minutes.

#logical positivism

Logical positivism

Logical positivism can be defined as the philosophical movement which was mainly characterized with the thought that only scientific knowledge is true, and is factual and all other metaphysical doctrines are meaningless. Logical positivists largely concerned themselves with two main points: the analytic/synthetic distinction and the verifiability theory of meaning.

Analytic propositions are ones that are true or false in virtue of their meaning alone. Such statements are statements of pure logic, for example mathematical statements:

2+2= 4 or triangles have 3 sides; one knows them simply by virtue definition.

Synthetic propositions are ones that are true or false in virtue of how the world is. Empirical or scientific fall under the synthetic propositions.

The Verifiability Theory of Meaning

How do words get their meaning?

If I say “water is blue” and “aqua es azul” those two sentences mean the same thing. But what exactly does it mean to “mean the same thing?”

According to the positivists, the meaning of a sentence is how one verifies it. For example in the forth mentioned example one could verify by looking at water and determining whether in fact it is blue regardless of the differences in language.

If there is, in principle, no way to verify a statement then it’s meaningless.

#logical positivism

#verification principle

Ayer & the Idea of God

Ayer concluded that talk about God cannot be proven true or false; therefore, such statements about God are meaningless. Ayer dismissed any talk of religious experience which cannot be verified empirically.

#aj ayer #verification principle

Verification Principle

“Statements that cannot be empirically verified are meaningless."

The verification principle asserts that only analytic or synthetic statements that are empirically verifiable are meaningful. Hence, all other statements that lack this criteria are meaningless. There are two classifications to this principle:

Strong verification principle—

Occurs when there is no doubt on a metaphysical statement.

Weak verification principle—

There is no absolute proof, but there is a strong likelihood of truth.

#verification principle

Answer to Free Will

Determinists deny any such freedom. Determinists believe that everything that happens follows ineluctably from natural or divine laws. There is but only one possible future. Determinism mainly states that free will is just an illusion; Weather we choose choice A or choice B, we ultimately end up with the same outcome.

Compatibilists redefine freedom. Although our will is determined by prior events in the causal chain, it is in turn causing and determining our actions. Compatibilists say that determinism by our will allows us to take moral responsibility for our actions.

Libertarians think the will is free when a choice can be made that is not determined or necessitated by prior events. The will is free when alternative choices could have been made with the same pre-existing conditions.

hey, I wanted to know what was blackbox functionalism?

Black Box functionalism is the claim that two brain-state tokens are tokens of the same mental type if they have the same causal relations to inputs, outputs, and other brain states.

Basically, the mind is a black box, to be explained solely in terms of inputs and outputs. The internal workings of the mind, the black box, that transform the input into the output are internal, hidden from our view, and they are of no concern to the theory. Mental phenomena, such as pain, are reducible to the abstract information-processing functions of a black box. (Input-output plus internal information processing).

Challenges faces black box functionalism:

It leaves out qualia (subjective look and feel of things)

See Block's Chinese Nation argument.

#black box functionalism #functionalism #submission

Functionalism

A doctrine that states what makes something a mental state (pain, desire, thought) of a particular type does not depend on its internal constitution but rather on the way it functions.

Some things in the world are defined or explained in terms of what they are made of. For example, water is H2O. Nonetheless, many things are define not in terms of what they are made of but in terms of what their functions are. An example of this would be a heart; the heart pumps blood around the body of an organism. Here, the organic composition of the heart is irrelevant. Something is a heart by the role it plays, the function it serves.

#Physicalism and the Identity Theory #mary's room

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