In the previous lecture, we asked the question: Under what conditions is the statement "X exists" true?
I gambled that ChatGPT could tell it better than me, so I dropped my question there and ChatGPT came up with a correct answer,
The truth value of the statement is determined by the following conditions: Objective existence, Observable or detectable, Consistency with reality, Empirical evidence, Verification or confirmation, and Contextual relevance.
I guess that might be sufficient. Let's look at the condition of Objective existence, that means: For X to exist, it must have a physical or abstract form that is independent of subjective perception.
What is that? Do abstract forms exist? Ok, the tin can at my feet exists. I can kick it down the street, but for abstract things, where is the empirical evidence? After all, that is also one of the conditions.
This brings us to the next step: language. As a teaser, I said in the debate after the previous lecture that the mind does not exist. This obliges me to come up with a decent argumentation and explain what I mean by it.
Ok, let's begin with simple semantics. It means the branch of linguistics and logic concerned with meaning.
Our area here is logical semantics, concerned with matters such as meaning and reference and presupposition and implication.
The basic idea is that when we describe our world, the words we use have a meaning and a reference. That is the way we communicate and understand each other.
That is why you always can ask about every word what it means and determine on the basis of the meaning whether that word really refers to something real.
Take for instance the word "Martian". Someone might tell you that he had a conversation with a Martian lately.
What is a Martian? Well, a little green man who lives on the planet Mars. Such an answer sounds meaningful.
But as we all know there is no life on Mars. So, there is no link between the meaning and an observable object. In other words.....fake news. It is some subjective personal fantasy.
But that is how we have learned to deal with communication. What is said and told often sounds meaningful to us,
which easily leads to the assumption that it is about something substantial and real unless we identify what is said as a lie.
Thence, when I talk about the mind, we are inclined to assume that there is something observable in a human being, that we can point to as "the mind". But there isn't. Yet it is an abstract term of which we can say that it exists.
I can take you to the supermarket and you are impressed by the countless products on the shelves, the cash registers, and self-scan tools, but at the end, you say:
You promised to show me your favorite supermarket. I have seen a lot of products and so on, but where is the supermarket?
This shows us that like the term "Mind" the term"Supermarket" does not refer to a single material object but to a whole collection or set of individual objects. You could call such terms container concepts.
It is like the ingredients of a recipe. Each ingredient has a meaning and real reference and when you put them all together you get union soup, a term which refers to the collection of ingredients.
In that sense, we can speak about the existence of abstract concepts. The term "mind" does not refer to some single thing in our head, but to a collection of processes and so on in our central nervous system.
Thank you for your attention again....
Main Sources:
MacMillan The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2nd edition
TABLE OF CONTENT -----------------------------------------------------------------
1 - 100 Philosophers 9 May 2009 Start of
2 - 25+ Women Philosophers 10 May 2009 this blog
3 - 25 Adventures in Thinking 10 May 2009
4 - Modern Theories of Ethics 29 Oct 2009
5 - The Ideal State 24 Febr 2010 / 234
6 - The Mystery of the Brain 3 Sept 2010 / 266
7 - The Utopia of the Free Market 16 Febr 2012 / 383
8. - The Aftermath of Neo-liberalism 5 Sept 2012 / 413
9. - The Art Not to Be an Egoist 6 Nov 2012 / 426
10 - Non-Western Philosophy 29 May 2013 / 477
11 - Why Science is Right 2 Sept 2014 / 534
12 - A Philosopher looks at Atheism 1 Jan 2015 / 557
13 - EVIL, a philosophical investigation 17 Apr 2015 / 580
14 - Existentialism and Free Will 2 Sept 2015 / 586
15 - Spinoza 2 Sept 2016 / 615
16 - The Meaning of Life 13 Febr 2017 / 637
17 - In Search of my Self 6 Sept 2017 / 670
18 - The 20th Century Revisited 3 Apr 2018 / 706
19 - The Pessimist 11 Jan 2020 / 819
20 - The Optimist 9 Febr 2020 / 824
21 - Awakening from a Neoliberal Dream 8 Oct 2020 / 872
22 - A World Full of Patterns 1 Apr 2021 / 912
23 - The Concept of Freedom 8 Jan 2022 / 965
24 - Materialism 7 Sept 2022 / 1011
The Discussion
[13:24] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): Thank you Herman
[13:25] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): well that makes sense indeed
[13:25] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): yes it does
[13:25] herman Bergson: This is how abstract concepts can have real reference
[13:26] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): good examples
[13:26] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): aaa yes
[13:26] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): indeed
[13:27] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): abstract containers for concrete collections of object together forming the final abstraction
[13:27] herman Bergson: I started as a philosopher who thought the Identity theory of Mind-Body was an answer for a materialist
[13:27] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): and now?
[13:28] herman Bergson: My point then was that expressions describing mental states.... It hurts....referred to the same empirical data as the statement...nerve so and so fire
[13:28] herman Bergson: And now.....:-)
[13:28] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): aaa
[13:28] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): you still hold that theory as it was then
[13:29] herman Bergson: Well...we are on our way to a concept that developed in the 1980s....when I was teaching
[13:29] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): ok
[13:29] herman Bergson: supervenience......
[13:29] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate) GIGGLES!!
[13:29] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): ...LOL...
[13:29] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): that word is ok
[13:29] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): checked it out
[13:29] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): makes a lot of sense
[13:29] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): ㋡
[13:29] herman Bergson: and what I am now investigating is if this really is a replacement of the Identity theory
[13:29] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): right
[13:29] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): ok
[13:30] herman Bergson: I am still niased and not yet convinced :-)
[13:30] herman Bergson: It will take some more lectures to get to the show down :-)
[13:30] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate) GIGGLES!!
[13:30] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): ...LOL...
[13:30] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): ok
[13:30] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): ㋡
[13:30] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): i see
[13:31] herman Bergson: Keep in mind.....
[13:31] herman Bergson: Philsophers spend a lot of time on conceptual analysis....
[13:31] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): yep
[13:31] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): we know
[13:31] herman Bergson: clear concepts and definitions helps other scientists in their field
[13:32] herman Bergson: Like for instance Thomas Kuhn as a philosopher of science showed that there is no linear progress in science...but paradigm shifts
[13:33] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): or change of terms
[13:33] herman Bergson: In my opinion the Identity Theory is a good ontological explanation of the relation between neuroscience and psychology for instance
[13:34] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): and there must be a connection the more the neuroscientists learn
[13:34] herman Bergson: I ran into the concept of Supervenience due to this project..... it told me what I had missed the past 45 years :-)
[13:35] herman Bergson: So...we'll see where I gonna land :-)
[13:35] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): ok
[13:35] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): ㋡
[13:35] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): It's always a pleasure to learn
[13:35] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): ah
[13:35] herman Bergson: it is....
[13:35] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): yes it is
[13:35] herman Bergson: for instance...
[13:35] herman Bergson: Today I thought....abstract term....? Gravitation
[13:36] herman Bergson: And I had a chat about it with ChatGPT....
[13:36] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): oh boy
[13:36] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): ok
[13:36] herman Bergson: I now have a reasonable insight in Einstein's relativity theory and the curvature of spacetime
[13:37] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): now that something!
[13:37] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): ㋡
[13:37] herman Bergson: From a materialist point of view very interesting
[13:37] herman Bergson: For Einstein there were two things.... mass and energy
[13:37] herman Bergson: or even only energy.... totally abstract
[13:38] herman Bergson: But what he came up with......is astonishing....how he interpreted reality
[13:38] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): aaa yes
[13:38] herman Bergson: I asked ChatGPT.....
[13:39] herman Bergson: And where did Einstein get his empirical evidence from to postulate mass and energy as the basics
[13:39] herman Bergson: I got a fabulous answer
[13:39] herman Bergson: A list of fundamental physics experiments that could not be explained unless......
[13:40] herman Bergson: Einstein put the pieces of the puzzle together
[13:41] herman Bergson: But there still is the question.....what is the input from within...from our brain....and what is the input from outside...through our senses to get to such an answer
[13:41] herman Bergson: It is really fascinating
[13:41] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): i have started using Bard part of Chrome
[13:41] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): it is good too
[13:41] herman Bergson: Here I have to think of the epistemology of Kant
[13:42] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): aaa yes i saw a doc about Bard, its really cool stuff
[13:42] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): he probably would too if living now
[13:42] herman Bergson: Yes...I have heard about that....
[13:42] herman Bergson: Is it a kind of ChatGPT ?
[13:42] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): saw that at a friends place last weekend
[13:42] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): it is separate
[13:42] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): its chatgpt but even more
[13:42] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): using the same technology
[13:42] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): it can do EVERYTHING as it looked
[13:42] herman Bergson: yes it is from a different company
[13:43] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): from writing essays to debug your code
[13:43] herman Bergson: How do you get in Gemma?
[13:43] herman Bergson: Bard.com???
[13:43] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): get chrome
[13:43] herman Bergson: I have
[13:43] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): let me see
[13:43] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): as i understand its not released to the public yet however
[13:43] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): still a prototype
[13:44] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): but the demo was cool
[13:44] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): https://bard.google.com/
[13:44] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): ok
[13:44] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): i guess i got in on an invite to test
[13:44] herman Bergson: ahh...cool
[13:44] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): try that
[13:44] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): i see
[13:44] herman Bergson: By the way...I saw a Youtube demonstrating ten other Chat/Bard like programs
[13:45] herman Bergson: It is a hype at the moment
[13:45] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): aaa it says right out all it can do with animated text
[13:45] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): cool
[13:45] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): yep
[13:45] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): big discussions here of problems with it
[13:45] herman Bergson: And it is revolutionary....
[13:45] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): as some one said like the invention of the printing press!!!!!
[13:45] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): that much of a leap
[13:46] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): is not supported in my country at moment
[13:46] herman Bergson: I could drop the text of this lecture in ChatGPT and say.... critic this lecture
[13:46] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): ohh
[13:46] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate) GIGGLES!!
[13:46] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): ...LOL...
[13:46] herman Bergson: and it will do....merciless :-))
[13:46] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): i hope it will not be like with Cortana, its still not available in Sweden, will never be
[13:46] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): oh dear
[13:46] herman Bergson: I think I'll gonna do it
[13:46] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): i have it on machine but cant use it, not supported in your language
[13:46] herman Bergson: BUT!
[13:47] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): yuck on cortina
[13:47] herman Bergson: Most important with these tools is the PROMPT
[13:47] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): and to enable it i have to reinstall entire machine with another language it seems
[13:47] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): oh wow
[13:47] herman Bergson: the PROMPT means....the formulated question or text you input
[13:48] herman Bergson: I saw an example
[13:48] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): no easy way to get it working, unless there is something i have missed, a while since i tried now
[13:48] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): yes
[13:48] herman Bergson: The input was a complext calculation....
[13:48] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): ah
[13:49] herman Bergson: something like (3423-65)/37.77 * 32.111
[13:49] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): ha
[13:49] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): well Bard is still a prototype and google is more worldwide covering it seems so i have hopes for it
[13:49] herman Bergson: the outcome was incorrect.....
[13:49] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): that i might be able to also use it
[13:49] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): it will get there bej
[13:49] herman Bergson: BUT
[13:49] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): it can be useful
[13:49] herman Bergson: the prompt was incorrect....
[13:49] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): ahha
[13:49] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): ok
[13:50] herman Bergson: He changed the PROMPT in : You are a gifted mathematician and you have to solve the following problem: (3423-65)/37.77 * 32.111
[13:50] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): well i want it correct also, otherwise its not useful ㋡
[13:50] herman Bergson: The answer ChatGPT generated was correct
[13:51] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): i am sure
[13:51] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): interesting3
[13:51] herman Bergson: this showed how essential the right formulation of a prompt is
[13:51] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): the mass of information on the web all collected and in place will give the correct information
[13:51] herman Bergson: Lots of Youtube stuff
[13:51] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): aaa indeed thats how it works
[13:52] herman Bergson: The most astonishing one was the example that you can order ChatGPT to formulate the correct and perfect prompt for your subject
[13:52] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): i would say the same for bard
[13:52] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): problem is
[13:53] herman Bergson: There is a Youtube of it...my son in law uses exatly that routine for his work
[13:53] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): can chatgpt or bard or any other get information enough to order an atomic attack or some other issue
[13:53] herman Bergson: Yes...BArd seems to be similar to ChatGPT....I don't say equal...that I don't know
[13:54] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): well i hope not
[13:54] herman Bergson: That was called JAILBREAKING Gemma
[13:54] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): sigh
[13:54] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): but the worry
[13:54] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): i recently saw this movie Delete about the entire internet reaching a critical mass of computers that then became an intelligent organism and deciding to wipe out humanity using all our technical equipment and weaponry
[13:55] herman Bergson: The general tool has restrictions....ethical and decency restrictions
[13:55] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): congress here thinking of how to harness it
[13:55] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDGIgGqTPOg&t=1581s
[13:55] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): 2 part film
[13:55] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): it can fake voice of real person saying words he never would
[13:55] herman Bergson: But it is possible to get ChatGPT to ignore decency rules of instance and make it write a porn story
[13:56] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): yep
[13:56] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): i guess u can do that
[13:56] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): it is scamming people
[13:56] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): it is doing it
[13:56] herman Bergson: or offer unethical solutions for some problem
[13:56] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): not chat bot but the use of it
[13:56] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): right
[13:56] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): so is scary
[13:56] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): until the prude Americans decide to burn it on the stake like all those books
[13:56] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): ssss
[13:57] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): but indeed it can be used in malicious ways if not careful
[13:57] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): ouch
[13:57] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): yes
[13:57] herman Bergson: You see a lot of movies in which Americans explain how to make big money with ChatGPT
[13:57] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): sheesh
[13:57] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): always money money more money
[13:57] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): sigh
[13:57] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): so typical US
[13:57] herman Bergson: indeed Bejiita
[13:58] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): dont blame us all bej
[13:58] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate) GIGGLES!!
[13:58] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): ...LOL...
[13:58] herman Bergson: I agree Gemma.....
[13:58] herman Bergson: the new world religion today is called ECONOMY
[13:59] herman Bergson: the name of the god is PROFIT and GROWTH
[[13:59] herman Bergson: it has a double name :-)
[14:00] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate) GIGGLES!!
[14:00] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): ...LOL...
[14:00] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): ok time
[14:00] herman Bergson: Class dismissed :-)
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