Combining Texts

Ideas for 'Perception', 'talk' and 'Modal Logic as Metaphysics'

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2 ideas

15. Nature of Minds / B. Features of Minds / 3. Privacy
We could know what a lion thinks by mapping both its brain patterns and its experiences [Douglas,A]
     Full Idea: In principle, it seems possible to monitor both the brain activity and the external experiences of a lion cub from birth, and by extensive mapping of one against the other to work out fairly accurately what a lion is thinking.
     From: Andy Douglas (talk [2003])
     A reaction: This has limitations (e.g. we could monitor the external events, but not the way the lion experiences them), but it seems to me to offer a real theoretical possibility of breaching the mental privacy of an inarticulate creature.
15. Nature of Minds / B. Features of Minds / 4. Intentionality / a. Nature of intentionality
If intentional states are intrinsically about other things, what are their own properties? [Robinson,H]
     Full Idea: Intentional states are mysterious things; if they are intrinsically about other things, what properties, if any, do they possess intrinsically?
     From: Howard Robinson (Perception [1994], 1.1)
     A reaction: A very nice question, which I suspect to be right at the heart of the tendency towards externalist accounts of the mind. Since you can only talk about the contents of the thoughts, you can't put forward a decent internalist account of what is going on.