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Lecture 01:
Mind & Reality
\def \ititle {Lecture 01}
\def \isubtitle {Mind & Reality}
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\textbf{\ititle}: \isubtitle
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\section{Points of View}
\emph{Reading:} §Crane, T. (2001). Elements of Mind: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Russell Bank’s novel ‘The Lost Memory of Skin’ does something
extraordinary. It creates empathy for a homeless pedophile
called ‘The Kid’.
It allows you to understand something of the world from The Kid’s
point of view.
This is a feature of many novels, and plenty of fact books too.
They allow you to understand things from another, perhaps quite alien,
point of view.
Why am I even mentioning this obvious truth?
You and I each have a point of view.
And having a point of view is a fundamental part of having a mind like yours or mine.
So thinking about points of view on the world seems like a good place to start in
a course called ‘Mind and Reality’.
a point of view:
some things
presented in a certain way
Terminology:
A perspective is a point of view.
Intentionality is the feature of you, or some states of you, in virtue of which you have a point of view.
viewpoint
A viewpoint is just a location and a direction.
I can occupy a viewpoint, as can you.
But you don’t have to have a mind to occupy a viewpoint.
A rock can occupy a viewpoint.
True, rocks don’t usually have fronts.
But we could mark the front of the rock with some paint.
Then there would be a sense in which the rock is occupying a viewpoint.
And if you move the rock, you could then occupy the same viewpoint the rock once occupied.
Is having a point of view
just a matter of occupying a viewpoint?
The idea that something with a mind might have a point of view is potentially puzzling.
(Actually, we’re going to see that it’s extremely puzzling.)
But the idea that something occupies a viewpoint is not puzzling at all.
So if we could say that having a point of view is just a matter of occupying a viewpoint,
our lives as philosophers of mind would be much simpler.
We can see a problem with thinking of having a point of view as just a matter of occupying
a viewpoint by returning to the two aspects.
a point of view:
some things
presented in a certain way
What looks soft to me might appear hard to you.
If I though having a point of view was just a matter of occupying a viewpoint,
this would make no sense.
After all, the viewpoint is just a location and a direction.
There is no room in the notion of a viewpoint for
the possibility that things to appear one way to me and another to you.
To understand your point of view, I may need to identify things which do not exist.
Perhaps you mistakenly read ‘The Lost Memory of Skin’ as a biography.
So from your point of view, The Kid is a person.
You might go looking for him, trying to find him.
If I though having a point of view was just a matter of occupying a viewpoint,
this would make no sense.
After all, the viewpoint is just a location and a direction.
It cannot in any way encompass things which do not exist.
Like The Kid.
Is having a point of view
just a matter of occupying a viewpoint? No.
a point of view:
some things
presented in a certain way
So this course, ‘Mind and Reality’, is a course about points of view.
Having a point of view is a fundamental part of having a mind like yours or mine.
We will be investigating a variety of philosophical questions about points of view.
Let me start by tell you what those questions are ...
/ex/TorF/qq/A perspective is a point of view|Having a perspective is just a matter of occupying a viewpoint|Your point of view might include things which do not exist|Points of view can differ even if they are points of view on exactly the same things
\section{The Seven Questions}
\emph{Reading:} §Russell, B. (1910). Knowledge by Acquaintance and Knowledge by Description. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 11:108–128., §Levin, Daniel T., and Mahzarin R. Banaji. ‘Distortions in the Perceived Lightness of Faces: The Role of Race Categories’. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 135, no. 4 (2006): 501–12. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.135.4.501.
| topic | question |
| Acquaintance | How do your thoughts connect to the things about which you think? |
| Cognitive Penetration | How, if at all, do your thoughts influence your perceptions? |
| Awareness | What good is your perceptual awareness of the objects around you? |
| Sense & Reference | Why are some numerical identities informative? |
| Metaphysics | What is necessary for your personal survival? |
| Action | Of the events involving you, what determines which are your actions? |
| Induction | What is it for an observation to provide evidence for a scientific theory? |
Russell thinks the answer is something he calls acquaintance’ ...
Principle of Acquaintance
‘Whenever the relation of supposing or judging occurs, the terms to which the suppossing or judging mind is [thereby] related by the relation of supposing or judging must be terms which the mind in question acquainted.
‘This is merely to say that we cannot make a judgment or a supposition without knowing what it is that we are making our judgment or supposition about.
‘It seems to me that the truth of this principle is evident as soon as the principle is understood’
Russell, 1910 p. 118
| topic | question |
| Acquaintance | How do your thoughts connect to the things about which you think? |
| Cognitive Penetration | How, if at all, do your thoughts influence your perceptions? |
| Awareness | What good is your perceptual awareness of the objects around you? |
| Sense & Reference | Why are some numerical identities informative? |
| Metaphysics | What is necessary for your personal survival? |
| Action | Of the events involving you, what determines which are your actions? |
| Induction | What is it for an observation to provide evidence for a scientific theory? |
Levin & Banaji, 2006 figure 2B
‘Subjects viewed two faces on each trial. One was defined as a reference face and the other was defined as an adjustable face. Subjects were told that their task was to adjust the adjustable face until it matched the lightness of the reference face. On half of the trials, the faces were of the same race (both were Black or both were White), and, on the remaining half, they were of different races. On the basis of our previous informal observations, we tested whether subjects would choose relatively dark versions of the adjustable face for the Black reference face and relatively light versions for the White reference face.’
Levin & Banaji, 2006 figure 2B
Levin & Banaji, 2006 figure 3
‘Results of Experiment 1. The two bars on the left represent trials where subjects adjusted a face of one race to match a face of the other race. The two bars on the right represent trials in which the adjusted face and the target face were the same. Positive numbers represent overlight- ening of the face. Adj adjustable.’
Apparently, your beliefs can influence your perception of lightness and darkness.
So what?
Lupyan & Clark, 2011 figure 1
Start with it’s formal properties ...
‘Acquaintance ... essentially consists in a relation between the mind and something other than the mind’
\citep[chapter 4]{Russell:1912ln}
Russell, 1912 Chapter 4
But which relation is acquaintance? ...
What else can we say about acquaintance?
‘we have acquaintance with anything of which we are directly aware, without the intermediary of any process of inference or any knowledge of truths’
\citep[chapter 5]{Russell:1912ln}
Russell, 1912 chapter 5
What does this mean? Nothing, by itself. But Russell goes on to explain what he means:
Contrast: infer existence of a phone in your washing machine from the bumps vs opening it
and finding the phone.
| topic | question |
| Acquaintance | How do your thoughts connect to the things about which you think? |
| Cognitive Penetration | How, if at all, do your thoughts influence your perceptions? |
| Awareness | What good is your perceptual awareness of the objects around you? |
| Sense & Reference | Why are some numerical identities informative? |
| Metaphysics | What is necessary for your personal survival? |
| Action | Of the events involving you, what determines which are your actions? |
| Induction | What is it for an observation to provide evidence for a scientific theory? |
| topic | question |
| Acquaintance | How do your thoughts connect to the things about which you think? |
| Cognitive Penetration | How, if at all, do your thoughts influence your perceptions? |
| Awareness | What good is your perceptual awareness of the objects around you? |
| Sense & Reference | Why are some numerical identities informative? |
| Metaphysics | What is necessary for your personal survival? |
| Action | Of the events involving you, what determines which are your actions? |
| Induction | What is it for an observation to provide evidence for a scientific theory? |
a point of view:
some things
presented in a certain way
Siegel & Shuster, 1939 (Issue 1)
Siegel & Shuster, 1939 (Issue 1)
Siegel & Shuster, 1939 (Issue 1)
Does Lois see the unbearable coward?
Does Lois see the unbearable coward?
1. Lois sees Superman.
3. Clark is the unbearable coward.
Therefore:
4. Superman is the unbearable coward.
Therefore:
5. Lois sees the unbearable coward.
1. If Lois could see the unbearable coward, she’d know where he is.
2. Lois does not know where the unbearable coward is.
Therefore:
3. Lois cannot see the unbearable coward.
a point of view:
some things
presented in a certain way
| topic | question |
| Acquaintance | How do your thoughts connect to the things about which you think? |
| Cognitive Penetration | How, if at all, do your thoughts influence your perceptions? |
| Awareness | What good is your perceptual awareness of the objects around you? |
| Sense & Reference | Why are some numerical identities informative? |
| Metaphysics | What is necessary for your personal survival? |
| Action | Of the events involving you, what determines which are your actions? |
| Induction | What is it for an observation to provide evidence for a scientific theory? |
scene from altered carbon where couple gets daughter back in old body
Relevant because one is a familiar person in an unfamiliar body;
the other is an unfamiliar person in a familiar body (Ortega’s boyfriend’s).
| topic | question |
| Acquaintance | How do your thoughts connect to the things about which you think? |
| Cognitive Penetration | How, if at all, do your thoughts influence your perceptions? |
| Awareness | What good is your perceptual awareness of the objects around you? |
| Sense & Reference | Why are some numerical identities informative? |
| Metaphysics | What is necessary for your personal survival? |
| Action | Of the events involving you, what determines which are your actions? |
| Induction | What is it for an observation to provide evidence for a scientific theory? |
| topic | question |
| Acquaintance | How do your thoughts connect to the things about which you think? |
| Cognitive Penetration | How, if at all, do your thoughts influence your perceptions? |
| Awareness | What good is your perceptual awareness of the objects around you? |
| Sense & Reference | Why are some numerical identities informative? |
| Metaphysics | What is necessary for your personal survival? |
| Action | Of the events involving you, what determines which are your actions? |
| Induction | What is it for an observation to provide evidence for a scientific theory? |
All emeralds observed until 2020 have been green.
[induction] Therefore, probably all emeralds are green.
All emeralds observed until 2020 have been grue.
[induction] Therefore, probably all emeralds are grue.
An object is grue just if it is EITHER
first observed before 2020 and green, OR
first observed after 2020 and blue.
‘Goodman’s point is that two inductive arguments can have the exact same form, but one argument can be good while
the other is bad. So what makes an inductive argument a good or bad one cannot be just its form. Consequently, there can be no purely formal the- ory of induction and confirmation. Note that the word “grue” works per- fectly well in deductive arguments. You can use it in the form of argument 1, and it will cause no problems. But induction is different’
\citep[pp.52--3]{godfrey-smith:2003_theory}.
| topic | question |
| Acquaintance | How do your thoughts connect to the things about which you think? |
| Cognitive Penetration | How, if at all, do your thoughts influence your perceptions? |
| Awareness | What good is your perceptual awareness of the objects around you? |
| Sense & Reference | Why are some numerical identities informative? |
| Metaphysics | What is necessary for your personal survival? |
| Action | Of the events involving you, what determines which are your actions? |
| Induction | What is it for an observation to provide evidence for a scientific theory? |
| topic | question |
| Acquaintance | How do your thoughts connect to the things about which you think? |
| Cognitive Penetration | How, if at all, do your thoughts influence your perceptions? |
| Awareness | What good is your perceptual awareness of the objects around you? |
| Sense & Reference | Why are some numerical identities informative? |
| Metaphysics | What is necessary for your personal survival? |
| Action | Of the events involving you, what determines which are your actions? |
| Induction | What is it for an observation to provide evidence for a scientific theory? |
How to Use the Online Lectures
\section{How to Use the Online Lectures}
Watch with a friend, and talk
Take notes
Speed it up
Skip around
Ask questions
Components of This Course
\section{Components of This Course}
Assessed Work
2 hours exam (?!),
summer 2021
take home exam, November 2020
Formative Work
weekly seminar tasks on yyrama
in-lecture micro-tasks on zoxiy
\section{Seminar Tasks (yyrama)}
share your writing with your seminar tutor each week
seminars are to discuss your writing
zoxiy In-Lecture Micro-Tasks
\section{zoxiy In-Lecture Micro-Tasks}
Watch lectures with a friend, and talk.
Answer the questions on zoxiy together, or after debating them.
