Week+8+The+Self+PHIL250+W1+2024

.pdf

School

University of British Columbia**We aren't endorsed by this school

Course

PHIL 250

Subject

Philosophy

Date

Dec 19, 2024

Pages

Uploaded by LieutenantTankLion43

The SelfPhil 250 Minds and Machines Kousaku Yui

RecapPHIL 250 - Minds and Machines - Yui•Objectivity as a general method for understanding the world. •The physicalist method of objectivity. •Primary and secondary qualities •Phenomenal noumenal •Nagel’s critique of physicalism. •Nagel’s claim that any objective conception of the world is incomplete.2

OutlinePHIL 250 - Minds and Machines - Yui•Soul Theory •The Problem of Personal Identity •Locke’s memory view •The Prince and the Cobbler •Teletransporter case •Skeptical views •David Hume’s Bundle theory •Buddhist no-self views •The self in the world •Daniel Dennett’s “Where Am I?”4

AI Design Project pitfalls•Broad focus •Missing middle step •Godlike powers5

AI Design Project: Broad focus•You might think it’s more interesting the more that your AI can do. But it can actually often be less interesting. •More specific goals have more specific solutions •Fewer vague magical steps. Easier to identify specific evaluation criteria. •Easier to imagine. It’s exciting to see how the AI might actually be implemented in real life. 6

AI Design Project: Doing too much•Example 1: •Too broad: My AI will end food waste. It will determine all the sources of waste and eliminate them. •More specific: My AI will provide individualized expiration dates for specific fruits and vegetables using camera images and chemical sensors. This will minimize food waste. •Example 2: •Too broad: My AI will detect if you have cancer. You will provide all your medical information and it will tell you. •More specific: My AI will determine whether some skin discolouration is skin cancer.7

AI Design Project: Missing middle step8

AI Design Project: Missing middle step•Example 1: Money making AI •Inputs: LLM, stock market history, current state of world politics, world resources, career trends •AI: ??? •Output: Tells you what to do to make money! •Example 2: Happiness Engine •Inputs: LLM, scientific research, philosophy, religious texts •AI: ??? •Output: Gives you advice to be happy9

AI Design Project: Godlike powers•When the AI is tasked with doing too much, it ends up needing to have godlike powers.10

AI Design Project: Godlike powers•Example: Long term future Investment AI •To be able to give good investment advice, it needs to predict: •world commodity prices •every important world election •major changes in the private sector •future major technological changes •But each of these are amazing magical AIs in themselves!11

PHIL 250 - Minds and Machines - YuiThe self12

PHIL 250 - Minds and Machines - Yui•What are you? •Why does it matter what you are? •What does this have to do with AI?14

PHIL 250 - Minds and Machines - YuiThe self as soulSoul theory: The self is the immaterial soul. •This view exists in virtually all cultures around the world. •In the dialogue Phaedo, Plato endorses the view that the essential self is the psyche, or the soul.15

PHIL 250 - Minds and Machines - YuiThe self as soulWith Christianity, philosophers began to be concerned with life after death. Life after death had three possibilities: 1.Continuation of an immaterial soul. 2.Continuation of both an immaterial soul and a material body. 3.Continuation of a material body (which was often thought to include a material soul)16

PHIL 250 - Minds and Machines - YuiThe self as soul•Descartes’ view is also within soul theory. “So my mind is a distinct thing from my body. Furthermore, my mind is me, for the following reason. I know that I exist and that nothing else belongs to my nature or essence except that I am a thinking thing; from this it follows that my essence consists solely in my being a thinking thing, even though there may be a body that is very closely joined to me.” Meditations17

PHIL 250 - Minds and Machines - YuiNaturalistic viewsWhat are some reasons we might reject the soul theory of the self? What are some problems with a more materialist view of the self?18

PHIL 250 - Minds and Machines - YuiThe problem of personal identity•The ship of the hero Theseus is kept in harbor to memorialize his triumph. •As the ship ages, old planks are replaced one by one. •Eventually, every piece of the ship of Theseus has been replaced. •Is it still the same ship over time?19

PHIL 250 - Minds and Machines - YuiThe problem of personal identityVersion 2 •As before the ship is kept in harbor, but the old planks are removed proactively, before they decay too much. •The old planks are kept in a warehouse, where they are used to reconstruct the original ship plank for plank. Now there are two ships. •Which ship, if any, is the ship of Theseus?20

PHIL 250 - Minds and Machines - YuiThe problem of personal identityHow does the problem of the ship of Theseus apply to the self? What makes A, B, and C the same person? Does this problem apply to soul theory?21BCA

PHIL 250 - Minds and Machines - YuiThe problem of personal identityJohn Locke (17thcentury philosopher) thought that psychological continuity was what was important to personal identity. A, B, and C are the same person because C remembers B, and B remembers A, etc.22BCA

PHIL 250 - Minds and Machines - YuiThe problem of personal identityThe Prince and the Cobbler thought experiment •Locke’s version of Freaky Friday. Imagine a prince and a cobbler transferred consciousness and memories. Who would be the prince and who the cobbler?23

PHIL 250 - Minds and Machines - YuiTeletransporter case24

PHIL 250 - Minds and Machines - YuiTeletransporter case•Imagine a teletransporter that breaks you down at the atomic level and relays the information to another teletransporter on Mars. Using that information, “you” are recreated using the atoms on Mars. •Is the person who walks out of the machine on Mars you? •Now imagine the machine on Earth malfunctions and fails to destroy your old body. Which is the real you?25

PHIL 250 - Minds and Machines - YuiSkeptical views of the selfDavid Hume “For my part, when I enter most intimately into what I call myself, I always stumble on some particular perception or other, of heat or cold, light or shade, love or hatred, pain or pleasure. I never can catch myself at any time without a perception, and never can observe any thing but the perception.”26

PHIL 250 - Minds and Machines - YuiSkeptical views of the selfBundle theory The self is just a bundle of properties. There is no essence, no essential substance, to the self.27

The Buddhist No-Self❖The central tenet of Buddhism is the doctrine of No-Self, or anātman. 1.The word is composed of only aggregates.2.Amongst the aggregates, there is no unchanging essential self.3.Therefore, there is no unchanging essential self.

PHIL 250 - Minds and Machines - YuiBuddhist no-self views•Self-related thoughts lead to negative emotions (suffering) and negative conduct. We must realize that the self is an illusion. •The no-self doctrine is thought to only attack a permanent unchanging self. •The Buddha argued that the elements of psychology are not permanent, and so cannot be the basis for the self.29

PHIL 250 - Minds and Machines - YuiThe self in the world•The self is related to value, dignity, and moral personhood. •The self is that which has a story. There is a narrative identity. •The self is that which can be praised and blamed. •The self has a gender and a race. Do the existing views address these features of the self?30

PHIL 250 - Minds and Machines - YuiWhere am I?31

PHIL 250 - Minds and Machines - YuiDaniel Dennett•Philosopher and cognitive scientist. •In popular culture as one of the so called “New Athiests” •His approach to the philosophy of mind is usually reductive. For example, he thinks there’s no explanatory gap.32

PHIL 250 - Minds and Machines - YuiThe question•Where am I? •Am I where my body is? Am I where my brain is? 33

PHIL 250 - Minds and Machines - Yui34

PHIL 250 - Minds and Machines - Yui35

PHIL 250 - Minds and Machines - Yui36

PHIL 250 - Minds and Machines - YuiWhere is Dennett?•Where Hamlet (the body) goes, there goes Dennett. •Where Yorick (the brain) goes, there goes Dennett. •Dennett is wherever he thinks he is. •Dennett is in two places at once37

PHIL 250 - Minds and Machines - YuiThe body view•Where Hamlet goes there goes Dennett. •But the brain transplant thought experiment proves this false. •If Tom and Dick switch bodies, Tom is the fellow with Dick’s former body. •"The rule of thumb that emerged so plainly from the thought experiments was that in a brain-transplant operation, one wanted to be the donor not the recipient. Better to call such an operation a body transplant, in fact."38

PHIL 250 - Minds and Machines - YuiThe brain view•Where Yorick goes there goes Dennett. •But how could I be in the vat when it seems I’m out here. •If I went to California to rob a bank, would I be tried in California or in Texas? •If they locked up Hamlet, then Yorick would be free in Texas. But if they lock up Yorick and not Hamlet, then I’d be a free man.39

PHIL 250 - Minds and Machines - YuiThe perspective view•Dennett is where he thinks he is. •The view is that the location of the point of view is the location of the person. •But this view makes one infallible. Can’t I sometimes be wrong about where I am? •What if I go to the movies and I’m given the illusion of being on a rollercoaster?40

PHIL 250 - Minds and Machines - YuiThe parts view•Dennett is in two places at once. •Just like someone with one foot in Connecticut and one foot in Rhode Island.41

PHIL 250 - Minds and Machines - Yui43

PHIL 250 - Minds and Machines - Yui44

PHIL 250 - Minds and Machines - Yui45

PHIL 250 - Minds and Machines - Yui46Rosencratz

PHIL 250 - Minds and Machines - YuiQuestions•How does the question of the mind-body problem bear on this question? Does it matter if dualism or physicalism is true? •How might a mind-body dualist answer this question?47

PHIL 250 - Minds and Machines - YuiWhat is the self?•In asking the question, “Where am I?” we presuppose that the “I” refers to something. But what does it refer to? •The body? •The brain? •The soul? •Certain functions? •Partially the environment? •Nothing? Is the self an illusion?48