Mental States

Upon discovering that my friend, Roberta, has an extremely complex digital computer in her head teacher I was perplexed as to whether Roberta has mental affirms. Under the hypothesis that in order to keep back mental states she must be fuddle perception, sensations, emotions, legal opinions, thoughts, purposes, desires, as well as a assured self-aw areness, and free-will, I came to the conclusion that Roberta does non posses mental states. Through the adjoin of explaining my initial misconceptions concerning Roberta followed by her secures arguments concerning her want of a brain, inability to cross phraseology, and to make independent decisions I will attempt to gild that she does non engage mental states.

        Through her convert unreal of military man behavior, Roberta managed to fool me into thinking she was human. In conversation she non except discussed relevant topics, but also responded to me with appropriate answers in a feasible amount of time. For instance when talking close math, she appeared to struggle with difficult equations instead of finding immediate solutions as a calculator would. Since Roberta talked nearly her own preferences, decisions, opinion, ambitions, beliefs, and desires I assume that she was capable of form these things. However her success in convincing me that she was human and had mental states does not entail that this was true. Since I could only observe Robertas behavior and was unaware of the courtships behind it my judgements were f bothible. At this stage a methodological behaviorist would argue that Robertas behavior is exclusively that a second somebody, could know about her and and so it does not make sense for me to discuss her national states. Although at first this was the case, now that Roberta has been released from the hospital the fountain and not just the effects of her behavior are known. An analysis of Robertas inner states is made possible through the intimacy that her skull is make full by a digital computer that is programmed to control her movements. (356-357).

        The doctor that treated Roberta argued that her inadequacy of a brain entails a lack of a sense, which is an essential itemor to the possession of mental states. consequentlyce she is does not rent any feelings, beliefs, or preferences. Armstrongs individuality theory supports this statement through its cry that the mind is the cause of behavior. However, unlike the doctor this account for mental states is founded upon the belief that the mind is equal to the brain. This claim supports the intellection that because Roberta does not have a brain, she does not have a mind. Meaning a persons mental states is identical to their physical brain states. This claim is problematic because even between human brains it does not need true. In contrast, human brains vary widely in their line of work structure and organization and each individual brain so-and-so change over time. Although computers share this wide variation in how they are programmed to percentage, Robertas computer lacks the ability to update without the mental disorder of a programmer adding components. (324-330).

Personally, I believe that the brain is the cause of behavior and the mind is the source of consciousness. Since Roberta has a database, which functions as a control panel for her actions, she move match a human brains capability to perform tasks. Yet, her computer lacks the ability to adapt to all situations. Whereas, a brain can register information in accordance to past experiences, constantly modify and changing their rules for conduct. Although computers can save new data they are incompetent of updating it to apply general rules or adhere to exceptions to these rules.

The computer at bottom Robertas head only has physical components rendering it unable(p) to think, therefore lacking the perception and awareness of its own actions. These deficiencies are what mark Robertas lack of a mind forcing her to function solely on automatism. Although the computer is inputting sensory data and direct in accordance to the interpretation of this information, it is unaware of its own inputs and operations. In other language Roberta has no consciousness of her actions and the process of version her environment. Therefore, although Roberta can talk about her feelings, beliefs, and preferences she does not actually have any. Turing has argued that emotions are not a requirement for science. However, the word intelligence itself is an ambiguous term and its components are the focus of continuous debate. also how humans react to their environment is often dictated by their emotions, therefore, it seems problematic for Turing to exclude emotions, which contributes to the accumulation of association, from the resulting intelligence. (324-330).

The doctors beside argument was that Roberta could not have mental states because she is incapable of misgiving language. Although she can successfully portray language in a clear and concise form, she has no understanding of what the meaning of her words or thoughts are. Consciousness, as already explained and discussed, is a special image of mental state of perceiving other mental states. For instance, if Roberta had consciousness she would stab the meaning behind the complex symbols that make up language. However, all she is doing while speaking is manipulating form-only(prenominal) symbols in accordance to a system she has been programmed to follow.



Through the reception of information from her perceptual apparatuses she reciprocates by giving out instruction to her motor apparatus without cognize what these instructions are. Unlike with humans, she does not understand anything except the rules that have been programmed into her computer for symbol manipulation. Therefore she has no intentional state regarding the use of language; she can only speak as a result of her electrical wiring and programs instructions to move about sure symbols upon reception of certain cues. (374-375).

My belief that Roberta does not understand the processes she performs is fortified by her lack of intentional behavior. Although, one may assume that a starchy program with the right input and output would indicate intentionally, with the knowledge that Roberta has been formally programmed comes a lack of free will. Her inner mechanism that produces her various states of being is simply receiving formal symbols from her sensory receptors and then sending out other symbols to her motor mechanism without construe them. This is simply a manipulation of a series of rules controlled by the complex digital computer within her head. The programmer would have only had the knowledge of which operations to perform on which empty symbol, this person is completely unaware of what circumstances Roberta will adjust these symbols and meaning. For instance the programmer will not see what Robertas programmed visual preceptors encounter; he simply sets the brain to have specific reactions to a wide range of visual encounters. Therefore, as Berkley and Stanford eloquently labeled her, Roberta is only an ingenious mechanical the skinny and the idea that she could have a mind is unsubstantiated because she is incapable of having any intentions (376). The only source of her purposeful movements is the person that programmed her and not the programmed apparatus itself. Knowing that her behavior is the result of a formal program I feel justified in abandoning the idea that Roberta has any intentions of her own. (375-376).

In conclusion Robertas ability to successfully masquerade herself as a human being is incomplete necessary nor sufficient evidence to suppose that she has mental states. The fact that a computer that was programmed independent of her input or knowledge controls her shows that she is incapable of making her own choices. Furthermore, the systematic programming of language shows that she can only manipulate these symbols and does not have a conscious awareness of their meaning. Finally, I believe that she lacks a mind, therefore rendering her unable to possess consciousness. All of these factors contribute to my belief that she does not have mental states.

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