1. This power point raises questions about philosophy of mind . It is concerned with the nature and function of minds as well as the relationship of minds to physical bodies. In wondering whether a machine might have a mind, we’ll at the same time be forced to wonder what it means to say that human beings have minds. This will lead us smack into the problem of other minds a central problem in the philosophy of mind that also extends into epistemology (the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge). Whereas a philosopher of mind might ask, ‘what is the nature of mind?’ an epistemologist asks, ‘How do we know, what does and what doesn’t have a mind?’
2. Before looking at this question in more depth, it is necessary to recap theories concerning human consciousness and human experience. They are all Materialist (physicalist) in nature meaning: a persons mental state (whatever a person is experiencing at a particular moment) is intimately tied to their brain state at that moment.) 1.The mind is biological in nature ( biological states of mind – J. Searle) 2. The mind is a series of functional states (functionalism) 3. Mental states are just physical states of the brain. (identity theory) 4. There is no such thing as mind (eliminative materialism – P. Churchland)
