Armstrong's Nature of Mind: what is the mind?

A visual explanation of "The Nature of Mind", a philosophical essay by David Armstrong.

Created with Toon Boom Studio 6.0 and a Wacom Intuos Pen Tablet.

[pisser]

obviously, the majority of your subscribers came for game of thrones, including me. it is kinda sad, that so much time passed since your non-got-videos, and please feel encouraged to do more. you now have a decent audience and you definitely have your own unique style in explaining things, which nicely work not only on game of thrones.
keep it up!

[stalkr]

I came here from your GoT videos.

You should make videos about other topics more often. You have the ability to refer information in comprehensive, yet interesting and easy to follow way. You earned yourself a new subscriber.

[matthewstyring]

Dear you. Your videos kick butt. Although I need more. My need for interesting material explained in a unique way is apparently insatiable. Keep it up mate.

[brittanypetronella]

Bless you, I came here because I needed a refresher on Armstrong for a philosophy paper I have to write and you helped me so much

[michaelsupper]

*writing incohomprehensible youtube comments*

[verge]

Many thanks for this excellent animated summary of D. Armstrong's Materialist view on the Mind.  
A follow-up animated summary of the criticisms of D. Armstrong would be wonderful, please.  Particularly, those critics who point out the flaws in Armstrong's assertion that consciousness is just the brain's 'self scanning' system.  
From my point of view, regarding consciousness as being just a self scanning system seems to be pushing the computer analogy too far... almost to the point of explaining the nature of consciousness by merely giving it a name. 
Armstrong doesn't seem to explain HOW humans have self-consciousness... he just says we have it because that's how our brains work. There seems, to me, a quantum leap of something... to get from mere biochemical states in the organic tissue of the brain, to Self-Consciousness.
To assert that Self-Consciousness is just brain functioning is no better than explaining something by giving it a name.

[RolyVento]

Youtube needs more of this type of content, keep up the good work.

[migueche]

I found you out through my curiosity for the Game of Thrones world. But this type of material is definitely something else, something more. Please keep making videos with this type of content. I know the number of views don't compare but that is because people's curiosity is more easily diverted to amusement rather than scientific studies or philosophy. While is to a degree disappointing, it is also satisfying. It give us those whom are fewer in numbers the advantage of greater knowledge. Needless to say, you have gained another subscriber.

-Cheese

[SkyLordPanglot]

Awesome videos! But you have so few. You need to try and make more so you can monetize them rather than only doing it for fun. You can make some money out of them and you will have greater motivation to do more. And people like me will be satisfied with the videos they can watch. :D With the joke aside, I am pretty sure you can get a lot of viewers if you make more videos. Im trying to analyze what people like because I want to start expanding my channel and I can tell you that your methods, meaning the way you talk, the topics you choose and so, are liked from huge audience. If you can keep doing what you do up to now, but in greater size you are going to have at least million subscribers!

[natarieeecat]

I got hooked on your Game of Thrones fan theory videos- they are so clearly explained and interesting. I love the deadpan voice with the swearing and jokes! Keep it up and looking forward to some other Game of Thrones videos! (Maybe more specifically who 'the three heads of the dragon' are and who Cersei's prophecies will come into play- though I think the later is becoming pretty obvious) Also Jon's resurrection theory. And maybe how the Krakens actually come into play. And Theon's significance. Eh, just make some more GoT videos, they are so good to watch. Great job!

[itsTogo]

admiring your work and style, really. variety of contents and creative way of thoroughly explaining it. keep it up

[nosophoros]

I´m feeling like I love you, good sir! Haha You gave me some ideas for an essay that I´m making, needless to say that the Armstrong's Central-State Materialism was exposed accurately and in a way that was easy to follow, you should make more videos like this. I'm subscribing now.
Greetings from Costa Rica!

[goldfishmag]

Like other subscribers, i subscribed for GoT, but this content is very well made and i would be a happy camper if you were to make more philosophy videos.

[CosmicFaust]

So central-state materialism is basically type-identity theory in reductive physicalism?

[MonisticIdealism]

The view presented in this video does not get around The Hard Problem of Consciousness.

The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (a peer-reviewed academic resource) explains: "In more detail, the challenge arises because it does not seem that the qualitative and subjective aspects of conscious experience—how consciousness “feels” and the fact that it is directly “for me”—fit into a _physicalist ontology_, one consisting of just the basic elements of physics plus structural, dynamical, and functional combinations of those basic elements. It appears that even a complete specification of a creature in physical terms leaves unanswered the question of whether or not the creature is conscious. And it seems that we can easily conceive of creatures just like us physically and functionally that nonetheless lack consciousness. This indicates that a physical explanation of consciousness is fundamentally incomplete: it leaves out what it is like to be the subject, _for_ the subject."

[TheCireMC]

Great video! My teacher is so ûber boring, only if he could make things quick and simple sounding like this video, I really understood this better now!

[OrlovKruskayev]

Posting here to say that I just subscribed after seeing what I believe are all of your videos.

They are greatly appreciated and I hope there can be more of those. Even though I might want to watch this one a couple more times and read the source material. lol

[TGMS]

I've come to your channel through the GoT videos, (I guess most of us come here that way) and I must say that your methods of explaining things and your witty dry humor is really good. Keep up the good work and please make more philosophy videos, they´re great!

[shaunmadison]

Your channel is outstanding.  It's rare to see such objective explanations.  Thanks! Also just for curiosity, what program are you using for your animations here?

[Elkaade]

All behaviour is like programs, and there are limited amounts of programs availbe in this life, and even if you reach beyond this and find new things they simply cannot be kept because the world that surround us overwrites the experience, and you cant even name it or describe your experience.
I had a timeless experience where i felt the moment of starting an action, in the same time as finishing it, and i felt the entire path between.
I was aware of it, but could not describe it, because is simply impossible.
Time must be a strange thing and the sole reason why we have it is probably because we simply dont have enough faith and we require it, maybe if we realise theres actually no time, no energy, or anything, we just do do things if we have enough faith in it, we can then elevate to a higher, which basically means DEEPER level understanding.

Although this mind theory gives a nice explination, its still lacking.
Because, where do the purposes/behaviour types come from? IF the work like math, tey should be 1+1 =2 or 1-1=0 instead, we have them all different and unlikely colors there is a shitload of them they arent just light, dark or so.
They are endlessly varying.
So, thre must be  reason why exactlythis much exist.