Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'The Mental Life of Some Machines', 'Knowing One's Own Mind' and 'Second Philosophy'

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3 ideas

5. Theory of Logic / A. Overview of Logic / 7. Second-Order Logic
Henkin semantics is more plausible for plural logic than for second-order logic [Maddy]
     Full Idea: Henkin-style semantics seem to me more plausible for plural logic than for second-order logic.
     From: Penelope Maddy (Second Philosophy [2007], III.8 n1)
     A reaction: Henkin-style semantics are presented by Shapiro as the standard semantics for second-order logic.
17. Mind and Body / C. Functionalism / 2. Machine Functionalism
Instances of pain are physical tokens, but the nature of pain is more abstract [Putnam, by Lycan]
     Full Idea: In machine functionalism, pain tokens (individual instances of pain) are identical with particular neurophysiological states, but pain itself, the kind, universal, or 'type', can be identified only with something more abstract.
     From: report of Hilary Putnam (The Mental Life of Some Machines [1967]) by William Lycan - Introduction - Ontology p.6
     A reaction: This is where the "what is it like?" question seems important. Pain doesn't seem like a physical object, or an abstract idea. Personally I think the former is more likely to be correct than the latter. Causation by pain is not like causation by gravity.
18. Thought / C. Content / 6. Broad Content
External identification doesn't mean external location, as with sunburn [Davidson, by Rowlands]
     Full Idea: Davidson observes that the inference from a thought being identified by a relation to something outside the head does not entail that the thought is not wholly in the head, just as sunburn is identified by external factors, but is still in the skin.
     From: report of Donald Davidson (Knowing One's Own Mind [1987]) by Mark Rowlands - Externalism Ch.8
     A reaction: Rowlands (an externalist) agrees, and this strikes me as correct, and it needs to be one of the fixed points in any assessment of externalism.