Deja Vu Mind Paper 1

Philosophy of Mind

First Paper Assignment

Deja Vu and Theories of Mind

Sometimes people have a peculiar experience they call deju vu, or a related experience called jamais vu. In déjà vu, one will be performing some relatively novel action, perhaps walking into a store you haven’t been into before or meeting someone new, and all of the normal indicators from your perspective should be that this is a new experience. But the powerful feeling comes over you of familiarity—you have been here before or done this before, this has genuinely happened before. But you know that it hasn’t happened and that it shouldn’t feel this way. So it feels weird, wrong, and inappropriate.

In jamais vu, the opposite occurs. You are doing something that you have done many times before—opening the door of your house or talking to a friend about a familiar topic—but the experience suddenly feels exceedingly strange and unfamiliar to you, as if you have never done this before and this is a brand new type of experience. Yet you know that it should not feel that way.

So far, we have considered four groups of mind/brain theorists: Substance dualists like Descartes, Behaviorists/dispositionalists like Ryle, Identity theorists like Place and Smart, and functionalists like Putnam.

In four sections, explain what kind of theoretical account each of these approaches might give of déjà vu and jamais vu. How would each of these four views describe what is going on in theoretical terms?

Which one of them seems to you to have the greatest potential to give a plausible account of the mental phenomena? Explain why. Which one of them seems to you to give the worst or least plausible account of the mental phenomena? Explain why.

Your paper should be at least 4 pages long, typed, double-spaced, and free of grammatical errors. Your paper should conform to the Philosophy Department Writing Guidelines.

The paper is due in class Monday, Feb. 22.

Everyone has one extension that they may use on one due assignment during the semester that allows you to take until the next class period to turn in an assignment with no penalty. All other late assignments will be penalized a letter grade a day starting the day they are due. So assignments that are turned in at the end of class or later that day will be counted as one day late.