Chapter 2 return to philosophy through video games web page
The Game Inside the Mind, the Mind Inside the Game (The Nintendo Wii Gaming Console)

2A Key Words
2B Key Arguments
2C Cool Links
2D Discussion Questions
 
2A Key Words return to top
Affordances
Avatars
Cognitive interface
Diagenic realm
Empirical (or scientific) problem of the external world
Enactivism
Extended mind thesis
Factual dimension
Homunculus fallacy
Human-Computer Interface
Idealism
Kinesthetic interface
Metameric pairs
Moral cultural relativism
Naïve realism
P properties
Perceptual dimension
Phenomenalism
Philosophical problem of the external world
Practical knowledge
Propositional knowledge
Push-pull effect
Relativism
Scientific realism
Sense data
Sensory interface
Snapshot conception of vision
Truthiness
2B Key Arguments return to top

The Argument from Different Minds
Russell’s Problems of Philosophy Argument (longer version from Section 1.3 with 5 lines)
Russell’s Problems of Philosophy Argument Revisited
Russell’s Argument About Knowledge of Relations
 
2C Cool Links return to top
  1. Video Game Chartz, “Video Game Chartz – Nintendo – Sony – Microsoft,” http://www.vgchartz.com (accessed August 1, 2007).
  2. Game Daily, “Merrill Lynch: 30% of U.S. Households to Own Wii by 2011,” http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/feature/?id=15309 (accessed August 1, 2007).
  3. Wikipedia, “Saccade,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saccades (accessed January 20, 2008).
  4. Wikipedia, “Metamerism,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metamerism_%28color%29 (accessed, March 25, 2008).
  5. M. David Stone, P.C. Magazine, “Color Matching – Metamerism and Metameric Pairs,” http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1807992,00.asp (accessed March 25, 2008).
  6. Color Cube, “Chromatic Adaption,” http://www.colorcube.com/illusions/chrmadptb.htm (accessed March 15, 2008).
  7. Snopes.com, “Legend in His Own Mind,” http://www.snopes.com/sports/golf/innergolf.asp, (accessed August 1, 2007).
  8. Urban Dictionary, “Truthiness,” http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=truthiness (accessed November 21, 2007).
  9. Simlog, “Muscle Memory,” http://www.simlog.com/muscle-memory.html (accessed November, 20, 2007).
  10. J.L. Andersen and P. Aagaard, “Myosin Heavy Chain IIX Overshoot in Human Skeletal Muscle,” Muscle Nerve 23.7 (2000): 1095-104. The bodybuilding community became aware of this by reading Bryan Haycock’s “Muscle Memory, Scientists May Have Unwittingly Discovered Its Mystery,” http://www.thinkmuscle.com/articles/haycock/muscle-memory.htm (accessed November 20, 2007).
2D Discussion Questions return to top

1. Explain and evaluate the arguments for sense data givin in Section 2.1 of the text. 

2. The authors argue that there is a provocative analogy between the phenomenalist's "eye of the mind" and the player of a video game. They go on to make two claims about this analogy: (a) A.J. Ayer's phenomenalist account of levels of realism is shown to have strong implications for accounts sensory interface realism, and (b) given the consequent falsity of the snapshot conception of vision, it is very hard for phenomenalism to avoid the homuncular fallacy. Explain and evaluate these claims. [Section 2.2.2]

3. The authors present two key arguments concerning knowledge of the external world, as well as problems with these arguments. Explain these arguments. Explain and evaluate the claim that metameric pairs and the push-pull effect undermine these arguments. [Section 2.3]

4. Alva Noë's Heideggerian philosophy of perception is an alternative to phenomenalism. Show how, if correct, enactivism undermines the two arguments for phenomenalism presented in your answer to Question 1. Make sure to discuss the Heideggerian view that animals and people directly perceive affordance properties, as well as Noë's distinction between P properties and F properties. Evaluate the claim that enactivism predicts the success of the Nintendo Wii.[Section 2.4]

5. Contrast enactivism with phenomenalism. Explain the empirical results presented by the authors and evaluate the claim that they support phenomenalism. [Section 2.5]

6. Assume that you run a large software company and have so thoroughly ingested Chapter 1 that you could answer the above questions in a way that explains all of the material to your employees. Now write a memo explaining how this information is going to change the kind of software your company develops and the manner in which they are going to do it.

7. Given your mastery of this chapter, how plausible do you find Berkeleyan idealsm? Rationally defend your view! Make sure and define all terms and Explain all relevant arguments (assuming, as usual, that your reader is intelligent but does not know any philosophy).