MID-TERM EXAMINATION
Answer any 2 of the following 5 questions:
1) Suppose that technology has advanced to the point that it is possible to make an exact replica of your brain – not a clone, but a plastic replica with all the nerves and synapses and everything exactly where you have them in your own brain. Also imagine that it is possible to transplant this brain in the way we can transplant hearts into patients. Suppose that we transplant this exact replica of your brain into a brain-dead person. He subsequently revives and now has an exact replica of your brain. Are you and he the same person?
2) Is it possible to prove that nature will always operate in the same way it has operated until now? Justify your answer in sufficient detail.
3) Assume that we can make an exact replica of a human brain - with all the nerves and synapses and everything exactly where they are in a human brain. This further means that the exact same electrochemical events can and do take place on this replica as we find on a human brain which is in pain, joy, perceiving things, thinking, etc.. Subsequently, we place this replica into a robot. Is this robot the same as an intelligent human being?
4) Why did Descartes think that we cannot have knowledge based on the information [data] we receive through our senses? [What do we mean by knowledge?] What was his response to this problem?
5) What is dualism? Are there any problems with dualism? [Be specific.] What is materialism? Are there any problems with materialism? [Be specific.]
