Recipe for reading assignment #1
Read the section entitled “Preliminary Remarks”.
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View the mini-lecture entitled “Ideas not Facts”.
The border is green so this link is important!
Ideas not facts
Richard Dawkins presented a computer
simulation intended to show that it is
possible for generate a meaningful sentence
Methinks it is like a weasel from a random
sequence of 28 letters.
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The computer program works by including three
processes: generate, compare and select.
What is being generated?
What is being compared?
What is being selected?
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Dawkins uses this example as a
metaphor to illustrate how …
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Finish the above sentence.
Why is the example by Dawkins teleological?
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How is the concept of a future goal relevant to
identifying the teleological aspect of Dawkins’
account?
Think about this sentence.
Evolution has no long-term goal. There is no long-distancetarget...to serve as the criterion for selection
Think about this sentence.
We can say that ducks swim well because they have developed webbed feet -- plus
other attributes like a boat-shaped torso -- but nature did not somehow strive or
intend this in advance of its occurrence. Biology, to paraphrase Richard Dawkins, is
blind to the future.
Change the sentence Ducks swim well because
they have webbed feet into a teleological
statement.
Germs become drug resistant by mutating.
This is a tougher question - - Is the above
sentence teleological? Does it necessarily
imply that the future goal of mutation in germs
is for them to become drug resistant?
Think about the difference between the above
sentence and:
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Germs mutate to become drug resistant.
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Aristotelian view that perception is driven by a type of soul or animating force.
Read Chapter 1.1 until the top of page 8.
Is the following sentence True or False?
Aristotle viewed perception as being driven by a type of soul or animating force.
Is the following sentence True or False?
According to Aristotle, when a sense organ functions normally, it is designed
by nature to accurately reflect the physical attributes of an object
Is the following sentence True or False?
According to Descartes, when a sense organ functions normally, it is designed
by nature to accurately reflect the physical attributes of an object
What did Descartes mean by an idea being
“clear”?
What did Descartes mean by an idea being
“distinct”?
Which of the following ideas are clear and distinct,
according to Descartes?
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The number 5.
The perception of the colour red.
A sensation of warmth.
The idea of a straight line.
The category <sports>.
How did the notion of clear and distinct
ideas lead Descartes to infer that the visual
system represents objects in terms of their
shape rather than colour?
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Which did Aristotle believe was more
fundamental to perception; shape or colour?
View Case Study 1 then think about the
View the case study entitled “What is a mental representation?”.
following
questions.
What is the “homunculus fallacy”?
Which part of the paragraph below refers to
this fallacy?
“Now, when this picture [originating in the eyes] thus passes to the inside of our head, it still
bears some resemblance to the objects from which it proceeds. As I have amply shown already,
however, we must not think that it is by means of this resemblance that the picture...
(directly)....causes our sensory perception of these objects—as if there were yet other eyes
within our brain with which we could perceive it. Instead we must hold that it is the movements
composing this picture which, acting directly upon our soul in so far as it is united to our body,
are ordained by nature to make it have such sensations.”!
This cell fires
strongly when
the monkey prepares
to move a lever
in the 90 degree
direction (black rectangle).
What tells you the cell is firing strongly?
For which other directions does the same cell fire
strongly?
What do the thin threads
represent in the diagram on the
right?
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What does the blue arrow represent?
What does the dotted arrow represent?
The answer is given in the figure caption below.
Which arrow refers to a ‘population vector” in the diagram?
Which arrow refers to the direction of movement?
What did Descartes mean
by the following?
‘....we conceive of the difference between
white, blue, red, etc. as being like the difference
between these or similar figures. The same can
be said about everything that can be perceived by
the senses, since we can be sure that the infinite
multiplicity of figures is sufficient for the expression
of all the differences in perceptible things’.
Tough question: Can you relate the statement
by Descartes to the following statement by
Georgopolous?
Hint: Descartes believed (incorrectly) that neurons
were etching patterns made up of simple line
segments on the pineal gland. The covariation
between different patterns was responsible for
representing differently shaped objects, or
different colours, etc.
Modern neuroscientists believe that it is the difference in the
firing patterns of neural populations that is responsible
for the difference between mental representations.
So - - compare
and
Each of these figures in Descartes’ diagram is the 17th century equivalent
of neural firing patterns (because neurons it was believed, etched lines on the
pineal gland).
From perception to action
What did Descartes mean when he wrote that animals were
automata? (page 9)
What did Descartes mean by the phrase “figures traced in the
spirits of the pineal gland”?
According to Descartes, animals have two ways of moving.
Describe and understand each of these different ways of
moving.
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How does the above drawing from Descartes illustrate
action without cognition?
Descartes needed to explain how figures drawn on the
pineal gland represent the shape of objects.
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He argued:
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Now, if words, which signify nothing except by human convention, suffice to cause us to
conceive of things to which they bear no resemblance, why could not nature also have
established a certain sign that would cause us to have the sensation of light, even though
that sign in itself bore no similarity to that sensation? Is it not thus that she has
established laughter and tears, to cause us to read joy and sorrow on the faces of men?
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Be sure you understand this argument.
Is the argument teleological?
Humans, unlike animals, have three ways of producing
actions (not two).
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What is the additional mode of action available to human
beings?
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(Page 13)
Passions of the soul
What was the source of conflicting emotions,
according to Descartes?
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Does the rational mind generate emotional
conflict?
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What is the difference between “passions of
the soul” and passions arising from external objects?
Do “passions of the soul” depend on the brain?
How does emotional conflict occur?