spiritual
activity, emotionTHE SOUL—“AND BLEW INTO HIS NOSTRILS THE BREATH OF LIFE”
Position of the Church—The Dogma / Doctrine.
1. The Catechism ( CCC 362-368) says that “soul” refers to the innermost aspect of man, the “spiritual principle”.
2. Man is one thing—body and soul are integral to each other—a single nature.
3. Every soul is “created immediately by God” and is immortal.
Mind / Soul—how are they different?
Mind embodies the rational faculties;
Soul includes Mind and also (see Catholic Encyclopedia) the “vegetative” faculties (the unconscious?)—can we say that the Mind, Intelligence, Self-Awareness, is a physical effect and by-product—biochemistry inducing neurons to fire,...?.
St. Bonaventure proposed that the soul has three faculties—memory, intelligence and will—and the soul reflecting on itself is the second step, a Trinitarian model, to ascending (knowledge) to God.
The Human Mind—how it works?
spiritual
activity, emotion
logic, mathematical activities
artistic ability, creativity
Can biochemistry/physics account for all the above activities?
Biochemistry/physics explanation of mental activity:
functional MRI correlates brain activity in regions with activity of different mental activities:
Religious
Feelings and where they come from?
The localization pictures above not the whole story—anomalies:
the girl with hydrocephalic brain
Free Will: the Libet Experiment and prepotential Does it deny Free Will?
Can Computers Think—Is Artificial Intelligence Possible?
|
|
ATTITUDES TOWARD ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |
ADHERENTS |
|---|---|---|
|
A |
Strong AI: computers can be programmed to think, be conscious |
Dennet |
|
B |
Weak AI: computers can be used to simulate mental processes, but consciousness is nonprogrammable |
Searle |
|
C |
Non-computable physicalists: Need new physics; intelligence/consciousness non-algorithmic |
Penrose |
|
D |
Intelligence/consciousness is a thing unto itself and not to be understood by scientific methods |
1. If Mind is a product of biochemistry and physics, then one should be able to construct computers.../ robots that think
The Turing Test for Computer Intelligence.
2.
If it be possible to build computers that think, then it should be
possible to replicate thinking done by human beings, for example
mathematical proofs.
Penrose (by Godel’s Theorem/Turing’s theorem) shows that it is not possible, in general, to construct an algorithm (computational procedure) that will solve arithmetic theorems.
If computer cannot, in principle, do such, then clearly they could not be constructed to replicate all the intelligence functions of humans.
3. What about Chess Playing Computers?
White to move and draw; the computer does the obvious and takes the black rook with the pawn, thus opening up the previous impenetrable shield of pawns.
4. Searle's Chinese Room argument--
Where
do Conscience, Ethics and Morality, come from?
Altruism as a survival characteristic—E.O. Wilson, Michael Ruse sociobiology derived from observations of insect behavior
Keith Ward's refutation of sociobiology—pages 170-171 in “God, Chance and Necessity”
C.S. Lewis argues ("Miracles") that conscience and reason are God touching Nature in man.
Quantum Mechanics and Consciousness
Quantum Mechanics (which will be discussed in more detail later) is also a mystery in its basic, philosophical interpretation.
The role of the observer is fundamental in quantum mechanics; is this where quantum mechanics and consciousness are related?