Dualism

Psy391D - Class 1

(This page last updated 8 Sept, 2004.)

Four Different Aspects of Consciousness

• Awareness
  • Awareness can be demonstrated by verbal report.
  • Block calls it "access consciousness"
• Thinking
  • High-Level Cognition
    • solving problems
    • making decisions
    • planning
  • Is consciousness required of all higher-level cognition?
    • If a computer were capable of problem solving, would it be conscious?
• Self-consciousness
  • Introspection
  • Involves a mental representation of the self.
  • Is knowledge of self required for consciousness?
• Experience
  • What is it like to be conscious?
  • qualia
  • Could your conscious experience be produced by the activity in your brain?
  • Explaining experience is "the hard problem" (Chalmers).
  • Block calls it "phenomenal consciousness".

   

Possible Solutions to The Mind-Body Problem

• Dualism
• Monism
  • Idealism
  • Materialism

next class: Dualism

Psych 391D: Consciousness Kyle Cave Psychology Dept. U. Mass.