19 May Sociology discussion board 1 paragraph
David Hume (1711–1776) claims that the self is an illusion and that we can never, in any of our experiences, find a perception of the actual self. In his view, the self is constantly changing and you are never the same person one moment to the next. This view is not unlike some Eastern conceptions of the self and of the mind. It is also close to Jean-Paul Sartre’s notion that human beings are nothingness, that is, not-a-thing, and as such cannot be defined. There is no ego, there is no self. Accord- ing to Hume, all knowledge is based on sense impressions and on experiences. If this is the case, we don’t even have any evidence of the self, since any conception of iden- tity must be based on impressions. “It must be some impression that gives rise to every real idea,” he wrote in his Treatise on Human Nature. “The self is not any one impression, but that to which our several impressions are supposed to have a refer- ence.” There is no self. Therefore, as far as our idea of the self, Hume believed “there is no such idea.”
Although Hume argues against the self, other philosophers have argued for the existence of the self. Thomas Reid (1710–1796) argues that the mental ability of memory gives us reason to hold that the self exist. Daniel Dennett (1942) claims that a fundamental principle of evolution is self preservation as such the self must exist. The debate is not new, but recent scientific developments have made it more of a burning issue. If the self, the human mind, is a complex physical instrument—purely
“Listen carefully; what characterizes the mind is clinging to the notion of a self. But if one looks carefully into this ‘mind’, one actually sees no self at all. If you can learn how really to observe this [apparent] ‘nothing’, then you’ll find that “something” will be seen”
—Jetsun Milarepa, 1052–1135, The 100,000 Songs of Milarepa.
Although Hume argues against the self, other philosophers have argued for the existence of the self. Thomas Reid (1710–1796) argues that the mental ability of memory gives us reason to hold that the self exist. Daniel Dennett (1942) claims that a fundamental principle of evolution is self preservation as such the self must exist. The debate is not new, but recent scientific developments have made it more of a burning issue. If the self, the human mind, is a complex physical instrument—purely material, as most neuroscientists believe—then it is not only possible but probable that we will eventually explain everything there is to know about the self by studying how the brain works. And it is also possible and probable that a computer system will do that as well.
POWERFUL ANALYSIS: KNOW THY SELF?
Can we know the self, or is the self simple like an empty theater as Hume proclaims?
Materialism is the rule in the science, and that position permeates much phi- losophy as well; it is certainly an easier proposition to say that all there is, is matter— and thinking is just part of a physical process. Although most people are very likely dualists—anyone who believes in God must be, for example, since God is not mate- rial—including atheists such as Jean-Paul Sartre who are not materialists and then have a tough time explaining what the mind is. Still, such an explanation is needed if we are to insist that a computer cannot “think” the way humans can.
That possibility is here, stemming from Alan Turing’s original work on artifi- cial intelligence and since then taking off at an exponential rate of success. Computers today not only do what only humans used to do, but they do so faster and more accurately. Does that make them intelligent? Does it mean that computers think? Maybe? In 1962, Time Magazine named The Computer its “Man of the Year.” And that was just the beginning.
On film at least, of course. The vengeful computer HAL in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) got the ball rolling in frighteningly believable sci-fi movie, followed by an invasion of smart androids in Ridley Scott’s Bladerunner (1982), an adorable and tragic little boy robot in Steven Spielberg’s A.I. (2001), or a sexy dis- embodied voice online who dumps a real guy for a smarter artificial intelligence in Spike Jonze’s Her (2013), to name a few of the best.
But there’s no need to go to sci-fi movies, just grab your phone. The impres- sively complex technology involved in designing that computational ma achine would have been unthinkable only a few decades ago. Maybe computers do think. Still, does the chess program on your laptop feel good when it beats you in every game? Does it judge the music you put on the iCloud? Is your computer punishing you when it freezes? Is it sad when it gets a virus? Does it like chicken soup?
Apple’s intelligent personal assistant iOS app Siri, the voice that talks to you in your car or phone, certainly seems intelligent. Siri uses a sophisticated system to interface with your own voice, gets to know you in the sense that her answers—part of the design of her software—will adapt to you the more you ask her. You can ask her “Siri, where is nearest beach?” or “Siri, what is neurophysiology?” But the smartest of smartphones, even with the latest iOS Siri app, is likely to answer your question “Siri, how can I be happy?” with something like “Macy’s is on 34th Street.” You are not talking the same language. Or, what is more likely, you are conscious and self-conscious, and Siri is not.
Some scientists would say that your own happiness and sadness in fact are not that different from the computer’s, as long as what you mean by emotions is precisely whatever goes on in your brain and whatever behavior you perform when you feel those emotions. That is a materialist view, and we do know a lot about matter. The presumption on part here is to assume that our knowing everything there is to know about physical reality leads us to know everything there is to know about the mind. It is fact a popular trend in Anglo-American analytic philosophy to assume just that. The self can or will be explained and understood in physical terms. It’s all about the nerve cells and what they do in that complex gray matter called your brain. Any- thing else is in the realm of mysticism, of returning to Plato, or—God forbid—of psychology. That is, as Tom Stoppard puts it, the hard problem.
And the problem is there, still. To doubt the materialist view of the self is not to doubt science: much of science is as verifiable as 2 + 2 = 4. Evolution is true, for example. The Big Bang Theory is true, as is the Law of Gravity. The Earth is billions of years old. Intelligent design theory of creation is not so intelligent. The idea is not to ask questions that were answered already and bring about confusion and retro- gression, but rather to avoid trusting answers for which there is no foundational evi- dence. A scientific theory of consciousness is easy, but only if you assume that physics, biology, and chemistry are the way to explain the mind. Yet materialism is a premise, not a conclusion.
We have evidence of dualism, hard as it is to prove it. Kurt Go ̋del upset many philosophers and mathematicians when he proved that there are true facts that cannot be proved but are nevertheless true. The tough part is explaining them.
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