Introduction
Daniel Dennett is considered to be an outstanding thinker, Professor in Art and Science and Cognitive Study Center Director. He dedicated most of his studies to human mind understanding, focusing on such aspects as consciousness, mind, mental thoughts, beliefs and states. Nevertheless, the mental state theory developed by Dennett, caused considerable contradictions among other philosophers; David Armstrong and John Searle expressed their strong rejection of this theory for a number of reasons, which totally differ from each other.
Theoretical Analysis of Dennett’s Theory
According to Dennett’s theory, people live in accordance with their beliefs and desires, though they have no idea what really these aspects mean. People have the ability to discern those beliefs they have in complex systems with predictive strategy adoption. According to the thinker, this strategy is called the Intentional strategy, which performs the role of a rational agent, allowing us to predict the behavior we want. It is necessary to underline the fact that Dennett firmly believes, that design and physical strategies are valuable tools for behavior prediction; Intentional Stance is considered to be an important tool contributing to human behavior prediction through a rational agent having desires and beliefs.
The problem of intentionality is considerably centralized within Dennett’s theory; mental states are characterized by ‘aboutness’, involving people in active interaction with the physical world. It is necessary to stress the idea that Dennett analyzed different methods of understanding and predicting processes analysis. Obtaining a physical stance is referred to as the least practical, but most accurate method; in this case, the objects are analyzed on the basis of physical sciences. Dennett’s design stance is described as a more practical method because it explains the behavior of objects on the basis of ways they are designed to behave. For example, the alarm shows the time which we design it to show. And the final method is an intentional stance, which means that everyone behaves in accordance with the desires and goals one has.
The aspect of consciousness is especially stressed by Dennett; he analyzes the Multiple Drafts Model, stressing the following factors: human consciousness has no place in the brain, mental states are paralleled in processing in the brains and the signals for being conscious cannot be reached. (Dennett, 15)
David Armstrong’s Theoretical Contradictions to Dennett
David Armstrong rejected the theory developed by Dennett for a number of reasons; he supported the position of materialists, stressing that mental states are parts of the physical body. He explained his position by the fact that all human physical actions are caused by mental states, that is why mental states are also physical parts. Mental states are considered to be perceived as bodily behavior; for example, the human belief that it is raining will make a person take an umbrella and materialize the thought. Mental states are regarded to be dispositions o human behavior in accordance with Armstrong’s theory.
Armstrong rejected the theoretical point supported by Dennett’s philosophy, which stresses that human desires control and predict behavior. He transferred the concept of mentality to materialism. Consciousness is identified as ‘scanning of one part of our central nervous system by another’ (Abel, 210)
He never supported the idea that mental and mind occurrences can be identified with behavior, though he recognized the logical connection between behavior and mental states, explaining it by the fact that a mental state is some state of the person that, under suitable circumstances, brings about a certain range of behavior.’ (Abel, 214)
John Seale’s Theoretical Contradictions to Dennett
John Searle is an outstanding thinker of California University; according to the theory developed by John Searle, the aspect of ‘intentionality’ identifies ‘aboutness’ discovered by Dennett. It means that intentionality appears to be the result of consciousness, which is characterized as a combination of terms for satisfaction. This explains the position, that every desire and belief is satisfied by means of intentionality processes. John Searle does not support the position of Dennett, stressing that conscious states are directed at satisfying conditions achievement. One of the most well-known conceptions developed by the thinker is the Chinese room argument, through which he expresses strong contradictions to modern artificial intelligence. People cannot live in accordance with the artificial mentality predicting and building human behavior on the basis of machine programming. Thoughts are understood by means of physical and biological brain properties. (Searle, 285)
Conclusion
The analysis of mental states developed by Dennett in his theory was based on its contradicting by outstanding thinkers Armstrong and Searle, who formed their own picture of conscious processes and intentionality connection. They investigated mentality and behaviorism on the basis of materialism and behavior prediction and understanding. Dennett’s theory managed to illustrate the idea that one can easily predict human and object behavior by means of instance, while Armstrong and Searle rejected this idea through personal conceptions development.
Work Cited
Abel, Donald. Fifty Readings in Philosophy. 3rd Edition. St. Norbert College. 2008.
Dennett, Daniel. The Intentional Stance. A Bradford Book, London. 1987.
Searle, John. Minds, Brains and Programs. Mind Design. Edited by Haugeland, J. 1981.