Ontology Current: Clockwork Universe Previous: Spirituous Hypothesis- these (the list made of controversial beliefs) are vestigial beliefs left over from a previous epoch (medieval) cases that go beyond the assumed mechanical world

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  Current: Clockwork Universe
  
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  Previous: Spirituous
  

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  With a few exceptions these contain an element of “spirit” (hidden non-mechanical connections)
  

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   Appearances were real
   
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      Medicines… e.g. hepatica (wild flower) for liver disease
      
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   Belief in Hidden Connections
   
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      Magicians- “hidden knowledge”
      
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      Witches- “Wissen” meaning to know
      
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      Astrology- the stars control disease and happenings
      
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   Earth was considered a special place
   
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      Sublunary (below moon) vs. Supralunary (above, past the moon)- Galileo’s telescope caused issues with this thought
      
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   Spirits, Ghosts, Angels- “The essence” of all things
   
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      Example-wine, beer spirits—“higher” “lower” spirits
      
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      Kepler’s “anima matrix”- planets pushed through space by this
      

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  Universe is like a machine
  
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  Mind and body interact
  
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    Dualism
    
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  Leads to empiricism, materialism
  

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  Presents a “dead” world (compared to previous age), completely mechanical, w/a mere island of “spirit” consciousness
  
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  Illustrating extreme mechanism example:
  
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    Planets are pushed in their orbits around the sun by “vortices” – opposed to Keplet
    
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    Dissected live cats—cats only “simulate” emotion
    
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  “I think therefore I am”------- Yields an island of spirit
  

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  Objected to dualism
  
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  Established theory of psychology based on sensory elements- empirical
  
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  Wilhelm Wundt brought Locke to the lab
  
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  J.B. Watson objected to introspection, established behaviorism (1920)
  
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  1940’s Development of the computer (Turing)—can machines think?—yes
  
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  1950’s Beginnings of Cognitive Psychology
  

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  C = centimeters (special extent)
  
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  G = grams (mass)
  
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  S = seconds (time)
  

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***How is this relevant to class?- How we think matters… are people willing to accept a completely mechanistic world? A lot of movies keep a spiritual view.

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  The current ontology is problematic for a theory of thinking and consciousness—it’s a metaphor invented by Descartes
  
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  Computers: Can they feel/have emotions? Can they have a conscious?
  
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    Our model of what’s real is based off of a machine. A computer is a machine and can think. As is the mind/brain—we should be able to break down the program and understand HOW the brain “thinks”.
    
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    This is a metaphor; pragmatism
    
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  If we can’t tell the difference between a human and a computer, then the computer must be thinking.
  
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    Yates’ doubts:
    
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      Works best with a digital computer. Babbage created a computer designed to do math—always broke (made with dowels and wires). Harder to associate thought with that vs. our current day computer.
      
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        Turing had his female workers all programmed on how they worked by passing along certain paperwork.
        
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        Computers have consciousness and can think
        
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        Chinese box (Searle)- You put in something written in English and it comes out translated in Chinese—person in box uses a translation dictionary.
        
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      Operational Definition of computer programs
      
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        I’m human, evolved, what is the program?
        
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        Computer programs are human made
        
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      The problem of consciousness… it’s a mystery.
      
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        Yates doesn’t see how we can make consciousness into a machine
        
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          Example: most people would say visual neurons fire and we aren’t conscious of this though, or the heart beating, lungs breathing, etc.
          
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      Discrepancy b/w our experience and our ideology
      
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        CGS—Everything has to be physical, but we all recognize our consciousness
        
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      Automation- a lot we do is just automatic so it may be similar to a machine, but yet we still have to think and make decisions.