Curated playlist
Concepts in the philosophy of mind
- MindIn Old English, the word mind originally meant only memory. Over centuries it grew to cover every form of mental life.
- Problem of other mindsHow do you know anyone else has a mind? All you ever see is behavior, never what is inside.
- GOFAIDoes the brain think by manipulating symbols, like classic AI? Haugeland coined GOFAI in 1985 to press that question.
- MeditationWhy do Buddhist prayer beads number 108 while a Muslim misbaha has 99? Each string of beads has its own reason.
- ReasonThe word reason once also meant an account of money handled. It comes from Greek logos and Latin ratio.
- KnowledgeA driver stops at the only real barn on a road of fakes. They guess right, yet many philosophers say they don't know.
- ThoughtIs thinking silent speech, a parade of images, or a quiet machine shuffling symbols?
- SoulIn 1901, a doctor put dying patients on a giant scale to weigh the soul. Duncan MacDougall claimed one lost 21.3 grams.
- ConsciousnessThe word conscious first meant knowing a secret together with another person.
- TimePhysicists define time as what a clock reads. They chose it because other definitions tend to go in circles.
- Self-reflectionMost people think they self-reflect, but only 10-15% of people studied actually do.
- Stochastic parrotTimnit Gebru got an email saying Google accepted her resignation, though she never sent one.