Posting quotes about the book that I want to discuss at the April meeting of the philosophy book club.
The Kindle doesn't give page numbers. There are 4051 locations. So please use the fraction (my location divided by 4051) to determine the page #. In other words multiply the fraction by the number of pages in your book. :-)
Loc 284-- ... Holmes' hubris may actually be intellectual courage
Loc 297 ...epistemic humility is consistent with the intellectual courage it takes to risk being wrong in order to capture the truth
Loc 380 ...intuition was something which he seemed fond
Loc 381 ..realized that sometimes it's easier to know something than to explain the justification for it
Loc 537 ...privacy in personal affairs that do not threaten public safety
Loc 545 What Kant's moral philosophy fails to address are the practical questions of what a person of good will would or should do in cases where it is a question of how to respond to the immoral acts of others, and how to judge these responses. This criticism is somewhat off the mark, for Kant doesn't claim to be addressing these questions.
Loc 549 Kant leaves it to each of us to use our reason to discover the practical application of the moral law for ourselves. He is simply giving us a foundation ...
Loc 526 Is it ever right for a private citizen to go above the law
Loc 625- A law that can't be enforced is no better than no law at all
Loc 629 - ...Aristotle states a truly virtuous man would find his greatest pleasure in doing what is noble and would be pained to do otherwise
Loc 743 One of the jobs of the philosopher is to bring clarity and precision to the terms we use in everyday language
Loc 1104 We have seen that it is certainly not deduction, as so often maintained by Dr Watson or by Holmes himself. ... It is one form or another of inductive reasoning that Holmes deploys...
Loc 1047 enumerative induction and eliminative induction
I would like to discuss the difference between deduction, induction and abduction.
Definition of deduction: loc 956, loc 1035, loc 1107
Definition of induction: loc 243, loc 999, loc 1019, loc 1109
Definition of abduction: loc 245, loc 1058, loc 3136, loc 3138
Loc 956 Deduction is what philosophers call a truth-guaranteeing type of reasoning, meaning that IF the premises of a deductive argument are correct, then the conclusion must be inescapably true.
Loc 992 This is important because it introduces an element of probability (as opposed to certainty)
Loc 999 ...generalizing from a series of observations, what philosophers can induction.
Loc 1035 ..the premises of a deductive argument often are the result of preexisting induction, which means that even the truth preserving character of deduction is in fact built on shaky foundations.
Loc 1058 Consilience is often referred to as abduction, or inference to the best explanation
Loc 3170 The abductive portion of Holmes's deduction thus depends on induction.
Loc 1902- What mattered for Kant was that our actions be inspired by the right intentions ...
Loc 2498 Among the most desired job skills today are critical thinking, good communication skills, ethical decision making, the ability to work well in teams and global literacy
Loc 2507 Consider the three leading moral theories today: consequentialism, duty theory (aka deontological ethics) and virtue ethics.
Loc 2539 ..a broad knowledge base is important for civic literacy and the responsibilities of democratic citizenship
Loc 2923 Among these finer fruits, Thoreau thought are the pleasures of friendship, the pursuit of knowledge,personal growth, and communion with nature ...
Loc 3066 Logical analysis can help detect falsehoods, but moving toward truth takes creativity...
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Thursday, January 10, 2013
The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt
Possible topic questions for the March 10th meeting of the philosophy club
Earl helped me narrow these down to 9. The ones we picked are in red.
Is it better to be good or have a reputation for being good?
page 73 loc 1432
Page 190 -loc 3324
Page 73--loc 1438---- "James [believed that] if you want to understand any mental mechanism or process, you have to know its function within some larger system
"It appears that the left relies primarily on the Care and Fairness foundations, whereas the right uses all five. ... If this is true ... does that give conservative politicians a broader variety of ways to connect with voters?"
Loc 65 of 7971 " ... morality is the extraordinary human capacity that made civilization possible"
Page 75---loc 1448---Human beings are the world champions of cooperation beyond kinship, and we do it in large part by creating systems of formal and informal accountability.
Loc 85-- " ...now I yearn for a world in which competing ideologies are kept in balance, systems of accountability keep us all from getting away with too much, and fewer people believe that righteous ends justify violent means."
Loc 97 "...don't take people's moral arguments at face value. They're mostly post hoc constructions made up on the fly, crafted to advance one or more strategic objectives."
Page 25-loc 575- ...but it was not reasoning in search of truth; it was reasoning in support of emotional reactions
Page 45--loc 948--the rider acts as the spokesman for the elephant, even though it doesn't necessarily know what the elephant is really thinking
Page 46--loc 958--Reason is the servant of the intuitions
Loc 128- ...religion is (probably) an evolutionary adaptation for binding groups together and helping them to create communities with a shared morality."
Page 14 of 313--loc 388 The sociocentric answer dominated most of the ancient world, but the individualistic answer became a powerful rival during the Enlightenment ... the western world reacted with horror to the evils perpetrated by the ultra sociocentric fascist and communist empires
Page 31-loc 677--Radical reformers usually want to believe that human nature is a blank slate on which any utopian vision can be sketched.
Page 278--loc 4886-- Innate does not mean unmalleable, it means organized in advance of experience
Page 47--loc 968--Yet friends can do for us what we cannot do for ourselves; they can challenge us ...sometimes trigger new intuitions
Page 67-loc 1330--When does the elephant listen to reason? The main way that we change our minds on moral issues is by interacting with other people.
Page 70-loc 1375-Intuitions can be shaped by reasoning, especially when reasons are embedded in a friendly conversation or an emotionally compelling novel or movie or news story.
Page 90--loc 1751--- ...put individuals together in the right way...
Page 59-loc 1168 ...human minds are constantly reacting intuitively to everything they perceive,and basing their responses to those reactions
Page 44--loc 926--- Emotions occur in steps, the first of which is to appraise something that just happened based on whether it advanced or hindered your goals
Page 76---loc 1486---Our moral thinking is much more like a politician searching for votes than a scientist searching for the truth.
Page 85--loc 1641The difference between a mind asking "Must I believe it?" versus "Can I believe it?" is so profound that even influences visual perception.
Page 86--loc 1663- ....what's in it for my team
Page 86--loc 1710---extreme partisanship may be literally addictive
Page 90--loc 1756--Nobody is ever going to invent an ethics class that makes people behave ethically after they step out of the classroom. Classes are for riders, and riders are just going to use their new knowledge to serve their elephants more effectively
Loc 1822 (page 96) "It has long been reported that Westerners have a more independent and autonomous concept of the self than do East Asians. For example, when asked to write 20 statements beginning with the words "I am .." Americans are likely to list their own internal psychological characteristics whereas East Asians are more likely to list their roles and relationships "
Page 241--loc 4240--- Fascism is hive psychology scaled to grotesque heights. It's the doctrine of the nation as a super organism, within which the individual loses all importance.
Page 100---loc 1891---Many societies therefore develop moral concepts such as sanctity and sin, purity and pollution, elevation and degradation.
Page 100--loc 1899..ethic of autonomy...ethic of community
Page 150--loc 2700---[more on sanctity and purity] .... [do you] view the body as a temple rather than as a machine to be optimized or as a playground to be used for fun
Page 152---loc 2732---Kass argued that our feelings of disgust can sometimes provide us with a valuable warning that we are going too far .... Shallow are the souls that have forgotten how to shudder
Page 119---loc 2217---Do you prefer Kant's categorical imperative over Bentham's utilitarian arithmetic to help you decide on right action?
Page 271 --loc 4770--The field of normative ethics is concerned with figuring out which actions are truly right or wrong.
Page 136--loc 2467----Trivers proposed that we evolved a set of moral emotions that make us play tit for tat.
Page 153--loc 2741---defined innateness as organized in advance of experience [does he make too big of a jump in stating how the various moral foundations evolved?]
page 154--loc 2761--It appears that the left relies primarily on the Care and Fairness foundations, whereas the right uses all five...And if that is true, does that give conservative politicians a broader variety of ways to connect with voters?
Page 175---loc 3121-- Liberals sometimes go beyond equality of rights to pursue equality of outcomes ... Conservatives,in contrast, are more parochial---concerned about their groups rather than all of humanity.
Page 179--loc 3190---Punishing bad behavior promotes virtue and benefits the group
Page 180--loc 3213 ...people's strong desires to protect their communities from cheaters, slackers and free riders
Page 233-loc 4082---Homo duplex
Page 240--loc 4214---pitting individuals against each other in competition or scarce resources will destroy hivishness, trust and morale.
Page 243-loc 4277- Creating a nation of multiple competing groups and parties was, in fact, seen by America's founding fathers as a way of preventing tyranny. [in the notes Haidt quotes James Madison]--
Page 244- loc 4290-- We evolved to live in groups.
Page 248---4349---Morality binds and blinds. Many scientists misunderstand religion because they ignore this principle ...They focus on individuals and their supernatural beliefs, rather than on groups and their binding practices.
Page 250---loc 4393--Believing, doing, and belonging are three complementary yet distinct aspects of religiosity...
Page 268--loc 4720---Religion is therefore often an accessory to atrocity, rather than the driving force of the atrocity.
Page 270--loc 4752-- [What do you think of Haidt's definition of morality?] Moral systems are interlocking sets of values, virtues, norms, practices, identities, institutions, technologies,and evolved psychological mechanisms that work together to suppress or regulate self interest and make cooperate societies possible. .... First, this is a functionalist definition. I define morality by what it does .....it cannot stand alone as a normative definition
Page 276--loc 4837---failure to agree on a routine bill to raise the debt ceiling ...led a bond rating agency to downgrade America's credit rating. That downgrade sent stock markets plummeting...
Page 277-loc 4865-- self-interest does a remarkably poor job of predicting political attitudes
Page 281--loc 4947 The human mind is a story processor...
Page 283--loc 4977--His own life narrative just fit...
Page 290--loc 5094-- reasoning is ... prone to overconfidence
Page 294- [he talks about moral capital then.....] John Stuart Mill said that liberals and conservatives are like this: "a party of order or stability, and a party of progress or reform, are both necessary elemants of a healthy state of political life
Page 295--loc 5194--I want to show that public policy might really be improved by drawing on insights from all sides
Page 298--loc 5242--I am not anticorporate, I am simply a Glauconian. ...operate in full view...with a free press... they are likely to behave
Page 298--loc 5251--efficient markets require government regulation
Page 310---loc 5454---[he explains why politicians need to compromise]
Page 311---[he explains why congress needs to stay in session for weeks at a time NOT just the middle three days of the work week. .... And he asks if primaries should be open rather than restricted to party affiliation ]
Page 313---Our politics will become more civil when we find ways to change the procedures for electing politicians and the institutions and environments within which they interact.
Page 313--loc 5528-- Intuitions come first, strategic reasoning second.
...importance of reputation ...
Loc 5576--This makes it difficult --but not impossible --to connect with those who live in other matrices ...
Loc 5581---Don't bring up morality until you've found a few points of commonality or in some other way established a bit of trust.
Earl helped me narrow these down to 9. The ones we picked are in red.
Is it better to be good or have a reputation for being good?
page 73 loc 1432
Page 190 -loc 3324
Page 73--loc 1438---- "James [believed that] if you want to understand any mental mechanism or process, you have to know its function within some larger system
"It appears that the left relies primarily on the Care and Fairness foundations, whereas the right uses all five. ... If this is true ... does that give conservative politicians a broader variety of ways to connect with voters?"
Loc 65 of 7971 " ... morality is the extraordinary human capacity that made civilization possible"
Page 75---loc 1448---Human beings are the world champions of cooperation beyond kinship, and we do it in large part by creating systems of formal and informal accountability.
Loc 85-- " ...now I yearn for a world in which competing ideologies are kept in balance, systems of accountability keep us all from getting away with too much, and fewer people believe that righteous ends justify violent means."
Loc 97 "...don't take people's moral arguments at face value. They're mostly post hoc constructions made up on the fly, crafted to advance one or more strategic objectives."
Page 25-loc 575- ...but it was not reasoning in search of truth; it was reasoning in support of emotional reactions
Page 45--loc 948--the rider acts as the spokesman for the elephant, even though it doesn't necessarily know what the elephant is really thinking
Page 46--loc 958--Reason is the servant of the intuitions
Loc 128- ...religion is (probably) an evolutionary adaptation for binding groups together and helping them to create communities with a shared morality."
Page 14 of 313--loc 388 The sociocentric answer dominated most of the ancient world, but the individualistic answer became a powerful rival during the Enlightenment ... the western world reacted with horror to the evils perpetrated by the ultra sociocentric fascist and communist empires
Page 31-loc 677--Radical reformers usually want to believe that human nature is a blank slate on which any utopian vision can be sketched.
Page 278--loc 4886-- Innate does not mean unmalleable, it means organized in advance of experience
Page 47--loc 968--Yet friends can do for us what we cannot do for ourselves; they can challenge us ...sometimes trigger new intuitions
Page 67-loc 1330--When does the elephant listen to reason? The main way that we change our minds on moral issues is by interacting with other people.
Page 70-loc 1375-Intuitions can be shaped by reasoning, especially when reasons are embedded in a friendly conversation or an emotionally compelling novel or movie or news story.
Page 90--loc 1751--- ...put individuals together in the right way...
Page 59-loc 1168 ...human minds are constantly reacting intuitively to everything they perceive,and basing their responses to those reactions
Page 44--loc 926--- Emotions occur in steps, the first of which is to appraise something that just happened based on whether it advanced or hindered your goals
Page 76---loc 1486---Our moral thinking is much more like a politician searching for votes than a scientist searching for the truth.
Page 85--loc 1641The difference between a mind asking "Must I believe it?" versus "Can I believe it?" is so profound that even influences visual perception.
Page 86--loc 1663- ....what's in it for my team
Page 86--loc 1710---extreme partisanship may be literally addictive
Page 90--loc 1756--Nobody is ever going to invent an ethics class that makes people behave ethically after they step out of the classroom. Classes are for riders, and riders are just going to use their new knowledge to serve their elephants more effectively
Loc 1822 (page 96) "It has long been reported that Westerners have a more independent and autonomous concept of the self than do East Asians. For example, when asked to write 20 statements beginning with the words "I am .." Americans are likely to list their own internal psychological characteristics whereas East Asians are more likely to list their roles and relationships "
Page 241--loc 4240--- Fascism is hive psychology scaled to grotesque heights. It's the doctrine of the nation as a super organism, within which the individual loses all importance.
Page 100---loc 1891---Many societies therefore develop moral concepts such as sanctity and sin, purity and pollution, elevation and degradation.
Page 100--loc 1899..ethic of autonomy...ethic of community
Page 150--loc 2700---[more on sanctity and purity] .... [do you] view the body as a temple rather than as a machine to be optimized or as a playground to be used for fun
Page 152---loc 2732---Kass argued that our feelings of disgust can sometimes provide us with a valuable warning that we are going too far .... Shallow are the souls that have forgotten how to shudder
Page 119---loc 2217---Do you prefer Kant's categorical imperative over Bentham's utilitarian arithmetic to help you decide on right action?
Page 271 --loc 4770--The field of normative ethics is concerned with figuring out which actions are truly right or wrong.
Page 136--loc 2467----Trivers proposed that we evolved a set of moral emotions that make us play tit for tat.
Page 153--loc 2741---defined innateness as organized in advance of experience [does he make too big of a jump in stating how the various moral foundations evolved?]
page 154--loc 2761--It appears that the left relies primarily on the Care and Fairness foundations, whereas the right uses all five...And if that is true, does that give conservative politicians a broader variety of ways to connect with voters?
Page 175---loc 3121-- Liberals sometimes go beyond equality of rights to pursue equality of outcomes ... Conservatives,in contrast, are more parochial---concerned about their groups rather than all of humanity.
Page 179--loc 3190---Punishing bad behavior promotes virtue and benefits the group
Page 180--loc 3213 ...people's strong desires to protect their communities from cheaters, slackers and free riders
Page 233-loc 4082---Homo duplex
Page 240--loc 4214---pitting individuals against each other in competition or scarce resources will destroy hivishness, trust and morale.
Page 243-loc 4277- Creating a nation of multiple competing groups and parties was, in fact, seen by America's founding fathers as a way of preventing tyranny. [in the notes Haidt quotes James Madison]--
Page 244- loc 4290-- We evolved to live in groups.
Page 248---4349---Morality binds and blinds. Many scientists misunderstand religion because they ignore this principle ...They focus on individuals and their supernatural beliefs, rather than on groups and their binding practices.
Page 250---loc 4393--Believing, doing, and belonging are three complementary yet distinct aspects of religiosity...
Page 268--loc 4720---Religion is therefore often an accessory to atrocity, rather than the driving force of the atrocity.
Page 270--loc 4752-- [What do you think of Haidt's definition of morality?] Moral systems are interlocking sets of values, virtues, norms, practices, identities, institutions, technologies,and evolved psychological mechanisms that work together to suppress or regulate self interest and make cooperate societies possible. .... First, this is a functionalist definition. I define morality by what it does .....it cannot stand alone as a normative definition
Page 276--loc 4837---failure to agree on a routine bill to raise the debt ceiling ...led a bond rating agency to downgrade America's credit rating. That downgrade sent stock markets plummeting...
Page 277-loc 4865-- self-interest does a remarkably poor job of predicting political attitudes
Page 281--loc 4947 The human mind is a story processor...
Page 283--loc 4977--His own life narrative just fit...
Page 290--loc 5094-- reasoning is ... prone to overconfidence
Page 294- [he talks about moral capital then.....] John Stuart Mill said that liberals and conservatives are like this: "a party of order or stability, and a party of progress or reform, are both necessary elemants of a healthy state of political life
Page 295--loc 5194--I want to show that public policy might really be improved by drawing on insights from all sides
Page 298--loc 5242--I am not anticorporate, I am simply a Glauconian. ...operate in full view...with a free press... they are likely to behave
Page 298--loc 5251--efficient markets require government regulation
Page 310---loc 5454---[he explains why politicians need to compromise]
Page 311---[he explains why congress needs to stay in session for weeks at a time NOT just the middle three days of the work week. .... And he asks if primaries should be open rather than restricted to party affiliation ]
Page 313---Our politics will become more civil when we find ways to change the procedures for electing politicians and the institutions and environments within which they interact.
Page 313--loc 5528-- Intuitions come first, strategic reasoning second.
...importance of reputation ...
Loc 5576--This makes it difficult --but not impossible --to connect with those who live in other matrices ...
Loc 5581---Don't bring up morality until you've found a few points of commonality or in some other way established a bit of trust.
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Kinds of Minds -Toward an Understanding of Consciousness by Daniel Dennett
My philosophy book club is discussing
Sweet Dreams -Philosophical Obstacles to a Science of Consciousness
on Sunday February 3 at 5:30.
I am also going to read Kinds of Minds -Toward an Understanding of Consciousness by Daniel Dennett
Notes from the book:
Page 1
Loc 48 "Can we ever really know what is going on in someone else's mind?"
Loc 55 "Could it be that all animals except human beings are really mindless robots? Rene Descartes notoriously maintained that in the 17th century. ... Might he have been wrong? Could it be that all animals and even plants have minds? Or to swing to the other extreme, are we so sure that all human beings have minds?"
Page 28-
Design stance predictions are riskier than physical stance predictions, because of the extra assumptions.
Page 31-
The intentional stance is ...a useful short cut... ... Seeking one's own good is a fundamental feature of any rational agent
To be continued
Sweet Dreams -Philosophical Obstacles to a Science of Consciousness
on Sunday February 3 at 5:30.
I am also going to read Kinds of Minds -Toward an Understanding of Consciousness by Daniel Dennett
Notes from the book:
Page 1
Loc 48 "Can we ever really know what is going on in someone else's mind?"
Loc 55 "Could it be that all animals except human beings are really mindless robots? Rene Descartes notoriously maintained that in the 17th century. ... Might he have been wrong? Could it be that all animals and even plants have minds? Or to swing to the other extreme, are we so sure that all human beings have minds?"
Page 28-
Design stance predictions are riskier than physical stance predictions, because of the extra assumptions.
Page 31-
The intentional stance is ...a useful short cut... ... Seeking one's own good is a fundamental feature of any rational agent
To be continued
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Sweet Dreams by Daniel Dennett
My philosophy book club is discussing this book in February 2013. details at this link
Notes from the book
Sweet Dreams -Philosophical Obstacles to a Science of Consciousness:
Loc 88 of 1933 "...it has been tempting over the ages to imagine that these striking differences must be due to the special features of some extra thing--a soul---installed somehow in the body headquarters"
Loc 98 "Is Leibniz's claim epistemological--we'll never understand the machinery of consciousness-- or metaphysical---consciousness couldn't be a matter of machinery?"
Loc 160 "... how can cells that themselves know nothing of art compose themselves into a thing that has conscious thoughts about art?"
Loc 181 "must we talk about zombies?" ... [critics of the mechanistic models of consciousness say something is left out, perhaps qualia, feelings, emotions, subjectivity, phantom residue]
Loc 190 "zombies--admitted by all to be imaginary beings--are (1)metaphysically impossible, (2) logically impossible (3) physically impossible or (4) extremely unlikely to exist
Loc 320 "Is there something women know about women's consciousness that men can never know?" ... "Is there something you know about your own consciousness that we others can never know?"
Loc 435 "There is an amiable but misleading tendency of people to exaggerate the wonders of their own conscious experience ..."
Loc 472 "... you are not authoritative about what is happening in you..."
Loc 495 quoting Chalmers "The justification for my belief that I am conscious lies not just in my cognitive mechanisms but also in my direct evidence; the zombie lacks that evidence ..."
Loc 575 quoting Lee Siegel "By real magic people mean miracles" [Then Dennett expands on the quote:] "It can't be real if it's explicable as a phenomenon achieved by a bag of ordinary tricks" [And Dennett explains the analogy:] "And that is just what many people claim about consciousness, too"
Loc 618 "The way the brain produces consciousness is quite magical"
Loc 684 "But that is the beauty of it! In a proper theory of consciousness, the Emperor is not just deposed, but exposed ..."
Loc 747 Dennett quotes Michael Tye: "Philosophers often use the term qualia to refer to the introspectively, accessible, phenomenal aspects of our mental lives."
Loc 753 "Phenomenal aspects or properties are usually contrasted with relational or functional properties of experience, but this negative definition is unsatisfactory- as uninformative as the claim that the spiritual properties of a person are those that are not physical."
Loc 956 Dennett on qualia: "Until one makes decisions about such questions of definition, the term is not just vague or fuzzy; it is radically ambiguous, equivocating between two (or more) fundamentally different ideas. There is no point in continuing to use the term until these equivocations are cleared up, one way or another."
Loc 1108 "So I stick to my guns. The standard presumption that Mary learns something, that Mary could not have figured out just what it would be like for her to see colors, is a bit of folk psychology with nothing but tradition in its favor. ( This is an invitation to philosophers to call my bluff and construct an argument that shows, from unproblematic shared premises, that Mary cannot figure out what specific colors will look like to her)
Loc 1239. "Philosophers have a choice: they can play games with folk concepts or they can take seriously the claim that some of these folk concepts are illusion generators."
Loc 1355 "Just such a quest is attempted by Ned Block ... [when Block states] "Phenomenality is experience." But what does this mean"
Loc 1376 "...something that lies somehow in between the causes of consciousness and it's effects"
I keep hearing this word bandied about. So I will put the definition here. Maybe others will have insight into its meaning
Functionalism:
1. the theory that the design of an object should be determined by its function rather than by aesthetic considerations
2. (in the philosophy of mind) the theory that mental states can be sufficiently defined by their cause, their effect o. Other mental states, and their effect on behavior.
Loc 1461 "Functionalism in this broadest sense is so ubiquitous in science that it is tantamount to a reigning presumption of all of science"
Loc 1488 "Some neuroscientists have thus muddied the waters but befriending qualia ..."
Loc 1560 "A particular popular version is Ned Block's proposed distinction between phenomenal consciousness and access consciousness ...". ... "the political access that some contents may have to the reins of power in the ongoing struggle to control the body."
Loc 1640 "consciousness ... point of view ... subjectivity ..."
Loc 1647 "We don't just notice things. We notice that we notice things."
Loc 1681 "Phenomenal properties are, by definition, not dispositional but rather intrinsic and accessible only from the first person point of view "
Now I am going to quote Damasio from his book Self Comes to Mind.
Loc 3900 "...qualia refers to the feelings that are an obligate part of any subjective experience.."
Loc 3910 "No set of conscious images of any kind and on any topic ever fails to be accompanied by an obedient choir of emotions and consequent feelings."
[he discusses qualia 1 as the feelings and qualia 2 as the cause of those feelings]
Loc 4046 "The neural design that enables qualia provides the brain with felt perceptions, a sense of pure experience"
To be continued
Notes from the book
Sweet Dreams -Philosophical Obstacles to a Science of Consciousness:
Loc 88 of 1933 "...it has been tempting over the ages to imagine that these striking differences must be due to the special features of some extra thing--a soul---installed somehow in the body headquarters"
Loc 98 "Is Leibniz's claim epistemological--we'll never understand the machinery of consciousness-- or metaphysical---consciousness couldn't be a matter of machinery?"
Loc 160 "... how can cells that themselves know nothing of art compose themselves into a thing that has conscious thoughts about art?"
Loc 181 "must we talk about zombies?" ... [critics of the mechanistic models of consciousness say something is left out, perhaps qualia, feelings, emotions, subjectivity, phantom residue]
Loc 190 "zombies--admitted by all to be imaginary beings--are (1)metaphysically impossible, (2) logically impossible (3) physically impossible or (4) extremely unlikely to exist
Loc 320 "Is there something women know about women's consciousness that men can never know?" ... "Is there something you know about your own consciousness that we others can never know?"
Loc 435 "There is an amiable but misleading tendency of people to exaggerate the wonders of their own conscious experience ..."
Loc 472 "... you are not authoritative about what is happening in you..."
Loc 495 quoting Chalmers "The justification for my belief that I am conscious lies not just in my cognitive mechanisms but also in my direct evidence; the zombie lacks that evidence ..."
Loc 575 quoting Lee Siegel "By real magic people mean miracles" [Then Dennett expands on the quote:] "It can't be real if it's explicable as a phenomenon achieved by a bag of ordinary tricks" [And Dennett explains the analogy:] "And that is just what many people claim about consciousness, too"
Loc 618 "The way the brain produces consciousness is quite magical"
Loc 684 "But that is the beauty of it! In a proper theory of consciousness, the Emperor is not just deposed, but exposed ..."
Loc 747 Dennett quotes Michael Tye: "Philosophers often use the term qualia to refer to the introspectively, accessible, phenomenal aspects of our mental lives."
Loc 753 "Phenomenal aspects or properties are usually contrasted with relational or functional properties of experience, but this negative definition is unsatisfactory- as uninformative as the claim that the spiritual properties of a person are those that are not physical."
Loc 956 Dennett on qualia: "Until one makes decisions about such questions of definition, the term is not just vague or fuzzy; it is radically ambiguous, equivocating between two (or more) fundamentally different ideas. There is no point in continuing to use the term until these equivocations are cleared up, one way or another."
Loc 1108 "So I stick to my guns. The standard presumption that Mary learns something, that Mary could not have figured out just what it would be like for her to see colors, is a bit of folk psychology with nothing but tradition in its favor. ( This is an invitation to philosophers to call my bluff and construct an argument that shows, from unproblematic shared premises, that Mary cannot figure out what specific colors will look like to her)
Loc 1239. "Philosophers have a choice: they can play games with folk concepts or they can take seriously the claim that some of these folk concepts are illusion generators."
Loc 1355 "Just such a quest is attempted by Ned Block ... [when Block states] "Phenomenality is experience." But what does this mean"
Loc 1376 "...something that lies somehow in between the causes of consciousness and it's effects"
I keep hearing this word bandied about. So I will put the definition here. Maybe others will have insight into its meaning
Functionalism:
1. the theory that the design of an object should be determined by its function rather than by aesthetic considerations
2. (in the philosophy of mind) the theory that mental states can be sufficiently defined by their cause, their effect o. Other mental states, and their effect on behavior.
Loc 1461 "Functionalism in this broadest sense is so ubiquitous in science that it is tantamount to a reigning presumption of all of science"
Loc 1488 "Some neuroscientists have thus muddied the waters but befriending qualia ..."
Loc 1560 "A particular popular version is Ned Block's proposed distinction between phenomenal consciousness and access consciousness ...". ... "the political access that some contents may have to the reins of power in the ongoing struggle to control the body."
Loc 1640 "consciousness ... point of view ... subjectivity ..."
Loc 1647 "We don't just notice things. We notice that we notice things."
Loc 1681 "Phenomenal properties are, by definition, not dispositional but rather intrinsic and accessible only from the first person point of view "
Now I am going to quote Damasio from his book Self Comes to Mind.
Loc 3900 "...qualia refers to the feelings that are an obligate part of any subjective experience.."
Loc 3910 "No set of conscious images of any kind and on any topic ever fails to be accompanied by an obedient choir of emotions and consequent feelings."
[he discusses qualia 1 as the feelings and qualia 2 as the cause of those feelings]
Loc 4046 "The neural design that enables qualia provides the brain with felt perceptions, a sense of pure experience"
To be continued
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Self Comes to Mind-Constructing the Conscious Brain by Antonio Damasio
My notes on the book
Loc 132 "Consciousness is not merely wakefulness"
Loc 172 "This book is dedicated to addressing two questions. First, how does the brain construct a kind? Second how does the brand make the mind conscious?"
Loc 325 "Most of the progress made to date on the neurobiology of conscious minds has been based on combining 3 perspectives: "
direct witness,behavioral, brain
He then goes on to discuss his desire to develop a fourth perspective.
Loc 351 "the lives of cells occur in extraordinary complex universes..."
Loc 360 "Using the fourth perspective ... countless creatures for millions of years have had active minds happening in their brains, but only after those brains developed a protagonist capable of bearing witness did consciousness begin ..."
Loc 487 He makes an analogy comparing consciousness to a conductor in an an orchestra.
Loc 544 "..the facts also authorize us to reject the false impression that our ability to deliberate consciously is a myth"
Loc 580 "The notion that...there are unconscious mind processes is hardly news"
Loc 790 "Is homeostasis enough to guarantee survival? ... Evolution took care ... by introducing devices that allow organisms to anticipate imbalances and that motivate them to explore environments likely to offer solutions"
Loc 818 "the notion of value is central to our understanding of brain evolution, ..."
Loc 844 "In the case of humans in particular, value also relates to the quality of that survival in the form of well-being"
Loc 884 "Plants have no neurons and, in the absence of neurons, never a mind."
Loc 893 "Brains evolved as devices that could improve the business of sensing, deciding, and moving ..."
Loc 913 "reward and punishment, the lead players in the dance of motivated exploration"
Loc 1085 "I am not a substance dualist ..."
Loc 1087 "I was simply indulging in aspect dualism"
Loc 1188 "the images in our minds are given more or less saliency in the mental stream according to their value for the individual. The value comes from the original set of dispositions that orients our life regulation as well as from the valuations that all images we have gradually acquired ..."
Loc 1198 "minds can be non-conscious and conscious"
Loc 1350 "consciousness, namely, feelings connected to an integrated representation of the organism "
Loc 1357 "The degree of sentience, feeling, and emotion that is possible in these cases ..."
Loc 1860 "my view of emotions as active programs". "steps of appraisal tend to be interposed, a filtering and channeling of the stimulus as it makes it's way through the brain and is led eventually to the trigger region. The appraisal stage can be very brief and non conscious, but it needs to be acknowledged."
Loc 1998 "Emotions and their underlying phenomena are so essential for the maintenance of life ..."
Loc 2007 "we have the possibility of controlling, in part, our emotional expressions"
Loc 2316 "Our knowledge base is implicit, encrypted, and unconscious."
Loc 2438 "consciousness is a state of mind in which there is knowledge of one's own existence and of the existence of surroundings"
Loc 2446 "Finally, our provisional definition must say that conscious states of mind are possible only when we are awake, although a partial exception ... Dreaming"
Loc 2476 "dream consciousness is not standard consciousness"
Loc 2479 "Turning the lights off is not an accurate analogy; lowering a dimmer switch is closer to the mark."
Loc 2508 "in coma, a situation in which all phenomena associated with consciousness (wakefulness, mind, and self) appear to be absent
Loc 2576 "Being awake, having a mind, and having a self are different brain processes, concocted by the operation of different brain components. They merge seamlessly ... Inside our brains, permitting and revealing different manifestations of behavior."
Loc 2602 "...just as signs of emotion are part of the externally observable conscious state, experiences of bodily feelings are a deep and vital part of consciousness from a first-person, introspective perspective."
Loc 2765 "Consciousness offers a direct experience of mind, but the broker of the experience is a self, which is internal and imperfectly constructed informer rather than an external reliable observer.
Loc 2832 "The ongoing digital revolution, the globalization of cultural information,, and the coming of the age of empathy are pressures likely to lead to structural modifications of mind and self, by which I mean modifications of the very brain processes that shape mind and self"
Loc 2901 "Boredom plays havoc with wakefulness....." ... "Alcohol increases wake fullness at first, only to induce sleepiness later ..."
Loc 3909 "No set of conscious images of any kind and on any topic ever fails to be accompanied by an obedient choir of emotions and consequent feelings"
Loc 3915 "In a small range of real life situations, the obligate Qualia I accompaniment may be reduced ... The most benign would come from the effect of any drug capable of shutting down emotional responsivity..."
Loc 4116 "Consciousness came of age by first restraining part of the non conscious executives and then exploring them mercilessly to carry out per planned, per decided actions. " "When we walk home thinking about the solution of a problem rather than about the route we take, but still do get home safe and sound, we have accepted the benefits of a non conscious skill that was acquired in previous exercises. " ... " Much the same applies to the professional behaviors of musicians and athletes ...practice ... The second nature that can guide you to Carnegie Hall."
Loc 4122 "... The conscious-unconscious cooperative interplay also applies in full to moral behaviors. Moral behaviors are a skill set, acquired over repeated practice sessions and over a long time, informed by consciously articulated principles and reasons but otherwise second natured into cognitive unconscious."
Loc 4129 "...what is meant by conscious deliberation has little to do with the ability to control actions in the moment and everything to do with the ability to plan ahead ... "
Loc 4150 "Split second vetoes remind us of a well known recommendation: Just say no. This strategy may be adequate when one has to preempt an innocuous finger movement, but to when one needs to stop an action urged by a strong desire ... Successful nay-saying requires a lengthy conscious preparation."
loc 4318 Spinoza seems to have had the right idea when he said that an emotion with negative consequences could be countered only by another, more powerful emotion. ... The non conscious device must be trained by the conscious mind to deliver an emotional counterpunch."
To be continued
Possible topic questions:
1. How do you define "self"? Are you OK defining the self in terms of biological knowledge pertaining to the past as well as anticipated future?
2. At loc 818, Damasio poses this question: "... what are the yardsticks against which value is measured?"
3. How do you like this definition of consciousness: ""consciousness is a state of mind in which there is knowledge of one's own existence and of the existence of surroundings"
4. How much do you think (thru training) you can change what emotions your brain generates? For instance, do Navy Seals get trained to reduce the fear response?
5. what are you willing to kill? Exclude self defense as a motivating factor.
Plants
Insects
Fish
Poultry
Cows and other mammals
Humans
Humans in a vegetative state
If yes to some bobutno to others, why? What is the difference?
Loc 132 "Consciousness is not merely wakefulness"
Loc 172 "This book is dedicated to addressing two questions. First, how does the brain construct a kind? Second how does the brand make the mind conscious?"
Loc 325 "Most of the progress made to date on the neurobiology of conscious minds has been based on combining 3 perspectives: "
direct witness,behavioral, brain
He then goes on to discuss his desire to develop a fourth perspective.
Loc 351 "the lives of cells occur in extraordinary complex universes..."
Loc 360 "Using the fourth perspective ... countless creatures for millions of years have had active minds happening in their brains, but only after those brains developed a protagonist capable of bearing witness did consciousness begin ..."
Loc 487 He makes an analogy comparing consciousness to a conductor in an an orchestra.
Loc 544 "..the facts also authorize us to reject the false impression that our ability to deliberate consciously is a myth"
Loc 580 "The notion that...there are unconscious mind processes is hardly news"
Loc 790 "Is homeostasis enough to guarantee survival? ... Evolution took care ... by introducing devices that allow organisms to anticipate imbalances and that motivate them to explore environments likely to offer solutions"
Loc 818 "the notion of value is central to our understanding of brain evolution, ..."
Loc 844 "In the case of humans in particular, value also relates to the quality of that survival in the form of well-being"
Loc 884 "Plants have no neurons and, in the absence of neurons, never a mind."
Loc 893 "Brains evolved as devices that could improve the business of sensing, deciding, and moving ..."
Loc 913 "reward and punishment, the lead players in the dance of motivated exploration"
Loc 1085 "I am not a substance dualist ..."
Loc 1087 "I was simply indulging in aspect dualism"
Loc 1188 "the images in our minds are given more or less saliency in the mental stream according to their value for the individual. The value comes from the original set of dispositions that orients our life regulation as well as from the valuations that all images we have gradually acquired ..."
Loc 1198 "minds can be non-conscious and conscious"
Loc 1350 "consciousness, namely, feelings connected to an integrated representation of the organism "
Loc 1357 "The degree of sentience, feeling, and emotion that is possible in these cases ..."
Loc 1860 "my view of emotions as active programs". "steps of appraisal tend to be interposed, a filtering and channeling of the stimulus as it makes it's way through the brain and is led eventually to the trigger region. The appraisal stage can be very brief and non conscious, but it needs to be acknowledged."
Loc 1998 "Emotions and their underlying phenomena are so essential for the maintenance of life ..."
Loc 2007 "we have the possibility of controlling, in part, our emotional expressions"
Loc 2316 "Our knowledge base is implicit, encrypted, and unconscious."
Loc 2438 "consciousness is a state of mind in which there is knowledge of one's own existence and of the existence of surroundings"
Loc 2446 "Finally, our provisional definition must say that conscious states of mind are possible only when we are awake, although a partial exception ... Dreaming"
Loc 2476 "dream consciousness is not standard consciousness"
Loc 2479 "Turning the lights off is not an accurate analogy; lowering a dimmer switch is closer to the mark."
Loc 2508 "in coma, a situation in which all phenomena associated with consciousness (wakefulness, mind, and self) appear to be absent
Loc 2576 "Being awake, having a mind, and having a self are different brain processes, concocted by the operation of different brain components. They merge seamlessly ... Inside our brains, permitting and revealing different manifestations of behavior."
Loc 2602 "...just as signs of emotion are part of the externally observable conscious state, experiences of bodily feelings are a deep and vital part of consciousness from a first-person, introspective perspective."
Loc 2765 "Consciousness offers a direct experience of mind, but the broker of the experience is a self, which is internal and imperfectly constructed informer rather than an external reliable observer.
Loc 2832 "The ongoing digital revolution, the globalization of cultural information,, and the coming of the age of empathy are pressures likely to lead to structural modifications of mind and self, by which I mean modifications of the very brain processes that shape mind and self"
Loc 2901 "Boredom plays havoc with wakefulness....." ... "Alcohol increases wake fullness at first, only to induce sleepiness later ..."
Loc 3909 "No set of conscious images of any kind and on any topic ever fails to be accompanied by an obedient choir of emotions and consequent feelings"
Loc 3915 "In a small range of real life situations, the obligate Qualia I accompaniment may be reduced ... The most benign would come from the effect of any drug capable of shutting down emotional responsivity..."
Loc 4116 "Consciousness came of age by first restraining part of the non conscious executives and then exploring them mercilessly to carry out per planned, per decided actions. " "When we walk home thinking about the solution of a problem rather than about the route we take, but still do get home safe and sound, we have accepted the benefits of a non conscious skill that was acquired in previous exercises. " ... " Much the same applies to the professional behaviors of musicians and athletes ...practice ... The second nature that can guide you to Carnegie Hall."
Loc 4122 "... The conscious-unconscious cooperative interplay also applies in full to moral behaviors. Moral behaviors are a skill set, acquired over repeated practice sessions and over a long time, informed by consciously articulated principles and reasons but otherwise second natured into cognitive unconscious."
Loc 4129 "...what is meant by conscious deliberation has little to do with the ability to control actions in the moment and everything to do with the ability to plan ahead ... "
Loc 4150 "Split second vetoes remind us of a well known recommendation: Just say no. This strategy may be adequate when one has to preempt an innocuous finger movement, but to when one needs to stop an action urged by a strong desire ... Successful nay-saying requires a lengthy conscious preparation."
loc 4318 Spinoza seems to have had the right idea when he said that an emotion with negative consequences could be countered only by another, more powerful emotion. ... The non conscious device must be trained by the conscious mind to deliver an emotional counterpunch."
To be continued
Possible topic questions:
1. How do you define "self"? Are you OK defining the self in terms of biological knowledge pertaining to the past as well as anticipated future?
2. At loc 818, Damasio poses this question: "... what are the yardsticks against which value is measured?"
3. How do you like this definition of consciousness: ""consciousness is a state of mind in which there is knowledge of one's own existence and of the existence of surroundings"
4. How much do you think (thru training) you can change what emotions your brain generates? For instance, do Navy Seals get trained to reduce the fear response?
5. what are you willing to kill? Exclude self defense as a motivating factor.
Plants
Insects
Fish
Poultry
Cows and other mammals
Humans
Humans in a vegetative state
If yes to some bobutno to others, why? What is the difference?
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Topic questions for meeting about free will
These questions are based on the two books mentioned. You do not need to read the books to come to the meeting.
1. How do you define determinism especially compared to fatalism?
2. What does free will even mean?
3. Under what circumstances would you NOT hold someone responsible?
4. Vohs and Schooler suggested that disbelief in free will produces a subtle cue that exerting effort is futile. They suggest that a belief in free will
be crucial for motivating people to control their impulses. Do you believe in free will?
5. Alone in a situation, does someone act the same as if in a group?
6. Let's talk about emotions and how they play a role in our own personal decision making process.
7. Incapacitation, retribution, or rehabilitation are the three choices society has for dealing with criminal behavior. Which do you prefer?
8. Is accountability what keeps us civilized?
9. .... social organization affects cognitive processes indirectly by focusing our attention ... Does that make you want to affect change in your society?
1. How do you define determinism especially compared to fatalism?
2. What does free will even mean?
3. Under what circumstances would you NOT hold someone responsible?
4. Vohs and Schooler suggested that disbelief in free will produces a subtle cue that exerting effort is futile. They suggest that a belief in free will
be crucial for motivating people to control their impulses. Do you believe in free will?
5. Alone in a situation, does someone act the same as if in a group?
6. Let's talk about emotions and how they play a role in our own personal decision making process.
7. Incapacitation, retribution, or rehabilitation are the three choices society has for dealing with criminal behavior. Which do you prefer?
8. Is accountability what keeps us civilized?
9. .... social organization affects cognitive processes indirectly by focusing our attention ... Does that make you want to affect change in your society?
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Free Will
The Jacksonville Junto (a group that likes to discuss philosophical topics) is discussing free will in October. In preparation, I plan to read 2 books:
Free Will by Sam Harris
Who's In Charge by Michael Gazzaniga
I plan to reduce these quotes down to 9 topic questions by the time that the meeting begins.
Here are some quotes from Sam Harris's book that I would like to discuss:
Page 32 (loc 370) And we know that the brain systems that allow is to reflect upon our experience are different from those involved when we automatically react to stimuli.
page 33 (loc 375)
As Dan Dennett and many others have pointed out , people generally confuse determinism with fatalism.
Page 40 (loc 442)
One of the most refreshing ideas to come out of existentialism (perhaps the only one) is that we are free to reinterpret the meaning of our lives
Here are some quotes from Who's in Charge that I would like to discuss:
Page 105-loc1676
Puncturing this illusionary bubble of a single willing self is difficult...
....Indeed, what does free will even mean?
Page 106 loc 1693
The issue is that there is no scientific reason not to hold people accountable and responsible.
Page 107 loc 1702
So what causes what? ...using the language of 'cause' seems to muddle it. We should probably come up with new and appropriate language ...
Page 115 loc 1830
Vohs and Schooler suggested that disbelief in free will produces a subtle cue that exerting effort is futile , thus granting permission not to bother
Loc 1835
They suggest that a belief in free will may be crucial for motivating people to control their impulses
Page 123 loc 1969
It is for this reason that our concept of a deterministic cause is different from our concept of a statistical cause<=Gazzaniga is quoting Howard Pattee
Page 125 loc 2004
If you recall, the corollary to determinism was that every event, action, et cetera, are predetermined and can be predicted in advance (if all parameters are known)
Page127 loc 2027
It is because there is much evidence that our brain functions automatically and that our conscious experience is an after the fact experience
Page 136 loc 2175
...responsibility and freedom. They are not found in the brain just as John Locke declared ... Responsibility and freedom are found, however, in the space between brains, in the interactions between people.
Page 138 loc 2205
Control is an emergent property. In neuroscience when you talk about downward causation you are suggesting that a mental state affects a physical state
Page 144 loc 2290
...we are just now understanding the neuroscience of the influences of social interactions
Page 147 loc 2337
Alone in a situation, does someone act the same as if they were in a group?
Page 156 loc 2479
For instance, Jessica Flack has found evidence for the existence of monkey cops
Page163 loc 2591
We actually mimic others constantly, but it happens so fast, we cannot actually perceive ...
Page 164 loc 2613
...looking like mimicry is not purely automatic and reflexive; occasionally brakes are applied based on social context.
Page 166 loc 2645
Many moral intuitions are rapid automatic judgements of behavior associated with strong feelings of rightness or appropriateness
Page 176 loc 2801
... split brain patients would care only about outcomes ...
Page 180 loc 2879
Incapacitation, retribution, or rehabilitation are the three choices society has for dealing with criminal behavior.
Page 181 loc 2887
Is accountability what keeps us civilized?
Page 183 loc 2925
Nisbett and colleagues suggest that social organization affects cognitive processes indirectly by focusing our attention ...
Page 187 loc 2980
Who do we blame in a crime, the person or the brain? ... Ironically, this question is treading dualist waters, suggesting that there is a difference between a person and his brain and body
Page 193 loc 3080
Responsibility reflects a rule that emerges ... in a social context
Free Will by Sam Harris
Who's In Charge by Michael Gazzaniga
I plan to reduce these quotes down to 9 topic questions by the time that the meeting begins.
Here are some quotes from Sam Harris's book that I would like to discuss:
Page 32 (loc 370) And we know that the brain systems that allow is to reflect upon our experience are different from those involved when we automatically react to stimuli.
page 33 (loc 375)
As Dan Dennett and many others have pointed out , people generally confuse determinism with fatalism.
Page 40 (loc 442)
One of the most refreshing ideas to come out of existentialism (perhaps the only one) is that we are free to reinterpret the meaning of our lives
Here are some quotes from Who's in Charge that I would like to discuss:
Page 105-loc1676
Puncturing this illusionary bubble of a single willing self is difficult...
....Indeed, what does free will even mean?
Page 106 loc 1693
The issue is that there is no scientific reason not to hold people accountable and responsible.
Page 107 loc 1702
So what causes what? ...using the language of 'cause' seems to muddle it. We should probably come up with new and appropriate language ...
Page 115 loc 1830
Vohs and Schooler suggested that disbelief in free will produces a subtle cue that exerting effort is futile , thus granting permission not to bother
Loc 1835
They suggest that a belief in free will may be crucial for motivating people to control their impulses
Page 123 loc 1969
It is for this reason that our concept of a deterministic cause is different from our concept of a statistical cause<=Gazzaniga is quoting Howard Pattee
Page 125 loc 2004
If you recall, the corollary to determinism was that every event, action, et cetera, are predetermined and can be predicted in advance (if all parameters are known)
Page127 loc 2027
It is because there is much evidence that our brain functions automatically and that our conscious experience is an after the fact experience
Page 136 loc 2175
...responsibility and freedom. They are not found in the brain just as John Locke declared ... Responsibility and freedom are found, however, in the space between brains, in the interactions between people.
Page 138 loc 2205
Control is an emergent property. In neuroscience when you talk about downward causation you are suggesting that a mental state affects a physical state
Page 144 loc 2290
...we are just now understanding the neuroscience of the influences of social interactions
Page 147 loc 2337
Alone in a situation, does someone act the same as if they were in a group?
Page 156 loc 2479
For instance, Jessica Flack has found evidence for the existence of monkey cops
Page163 loc 2591
We actually mimic others constantly, but it happens so fast, we cannot actually perceive ...
Page 164 loc 2613
...looking like mimicry is not purely automatic and reflexive; occasionally brakes are applied based on social context.
Page 166 loc 2645
Many moral intuitions are rapid automatic judgements of behavior associated with strong feelings of rightness or appropriateness
Page 176 loc 2801
... split brain patients would care only about outcomes ...
Page 180 loc 2879
Incapacitation, retribution, or rehabilitation are the three choices society has for dealing with criminal behavior.
Page 181 loc 2887
Is accountability what keeps us civilized?
Page 183 loc 2925
Nisbett and colleagues suggest that social organization affects cognitive processes indirectly by focusing our attention ...
Page 187 loc 2980
Who do we blame in a crime, the person or the brain? ... Ironically, this question is treading dualist waters, suggesting that there is a difference between a person and his brain and body
Page 193 loc 3080
Responsibility reflects a rule that emerges ... in a social context
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