Study Guides

Unit Summary

Pupils will consider what it is that makes a person who they are by examining religious and philsophical explanations for self and conciousness. Next, they will examine the idea of sentience in animals before evauating whether non-human objects of nature, such as rivers, can be said to be alive.

Lesson Summary

You will learn to evaluate different ideas of consciousness and how humans perceive reality.

Key Notes

• Rene Descartes used the evil demon hypothesis to engage in scepticism.
• Hilary Putnam proposed a thought experiment that humans could be brains in vats meaning there was no outside reality.
• The philosopher Rene Descartes famously said 'I think, therefore I am.'
• Some philosophers are dualists and see consciousness as something non-physical that identifies humans.
• Other philosophers are physicalists, such as JJC Smart who says that mental states are brain states.

Vocabulary To Learn

• consciousness: the state of being aware of and able to think about one's existence, thoughts and surroundings
• dualism: both physical and non-physical things exist, the mind or consciousness is non-physical and separate from the body
• physicalism: everything that exists is physical, including the mind or consciousness
• Rene Descartes: a French philosopher who lived from 1596–1650 and who built his philosophy by doubting everything except his own thinking

Common Mistakes To Avoid

• Thought experiments, like Putnam's brain in a vat, are claims about reality.

3 Quick Questions (With Answers)

More Lessons In This Unit

• Indigenous worldviews and personhood Study Guide
• Reflection: Is a river alive? Study Guide
• Self: what makes us who we are? Study Guide
• Sentience and animal consciousness Study Guide