Post by dylanharcourt on Jan 25, 2015 21:22:58 GMT
Week 2 Essay Questions
1. Why is understanding physics and the general rules of the universe so important in doing philosophy?
The literal definition of philosophy is the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence. Given this, philosophy aims to answer questions about our universe that many people have largely different views of because of a lack of understanding the very heart of physics, or quantum mechanics. Understanding this discipline and being able to utilize it will explain certain phenomena about particles and the objective world as a whole. Moreover, I believe understanding the general rules of physics serves as a solid foundation for being able to tackle the unknown because of how are universe breaks down in parts. For example, if a group of people is trying to understand human consciousness they may start with a discipline like psychology. This may help them understand behavior and how it connects towards certain regions of the brain. However, they will be limited until they utilize principles from biology; what are the physiological aspects of the brain? Further, chemistry will be a discipline that will help them achieve understanding chemical balances in the brain and how consciousness may or may not be dependent of these balances. Finally, neuroscience will be the very basis of where they will discover the most important aspects of the brain. Thus, disciplines can be seen as transitory rather than complete. Physics may not be as crucial here, but when understanding gravity or light, its mathematic qualities of are paramount need. Many situations that leave people uncertain, like the behavior of light, can be theorized about with the aid of physics. Nonetheless, physics is a discipline correlated with strange, natural phenomena. Changing the question from the initial example: can a conscious experience, like a memory, change how we perceive and understand reality? This question will try be answered philosophically, but the significance lies in the fact that all other disciplines serve as a foundation for understanding this more complex question. As seen from Einstein’s uncertainty about a probabilistic theory dealing with quantum mechanics, such philosophical questions of existence and reality serve as anchors for his skepticism.
2. What is eliminative materialism? Provide three examples of it.
Eliminative materialism is a process by which the philosophy of the mind is examined from a materialist position. By “eliminating” through disciplines that cannot sufficiently provide enough logical reason, followers of this concept believe that different mental states like desire, hope, and belief do not exist, but rather they are poorly defined due to a lack of understanding in neuroscience. Hence, each discipline serves as a transitory one (biology, chemistry, physics, neuroscience) while others are “eliminated” (branches of psychology). For example, in the reading The Great Mystery and the eliminative materialism videos, certain gods and supernatural entities were shown as examples of what was thought to create lightning, disease, etc. However, with better research in fields of science, electromagnetic currents (electricity) were discovered. As for spirits causing disease, bacteria were discovered and fields dealing with medicine were able to treat these problems. Similarly, feelings of pain, desire, or hope are something psychology helps us to understand what is going on mentally. However, neuroscience does not correlate much with this terminology, hence, folk psychology or “common-sense” psychology is viewed to one day being replaced with more precise neural explanations of these mental states.
1. Why is understanding physics and the general rules of the universe so important in doing philosophy?
The literal definition of philosophy is the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence. Given this, philosophy aims to answer questions about our universe that many people have largely different views of because of a lack of understanding the very heart of physics, or quantum mechanics. Understanding this discipline and being able to utilize it will explain certain phenomena about particles and the objective world as a whole. Moreover, I believe understanding the general rules of physics serves as a solid foundation for being able to tackle the unknown because of how are universe breaks down in parts. For example, if a group of people is trying to understand human consciousness they may start with a discipline like psychology. This may help them understand behavior and how it connects towards certain regions of the brain. However, they will be limited until they utilize principles from biology; what are the physiological aspects of the brain? Further, chemistry will be a discipline that will help them achieve understanding chemical balances in the brain and how consciousness may or may not be dependent of these balances. Finally, neuroscience will be the very basis of where they will discover the most important aspects of the brain. Thus, disciplines can be seen as transitory rather than complete. Physics may not be as crucial here, but when understanding gravity or light, its mathematic qualities of are paramount need. Many situations that leave people uncertain, like the behavior of light, can be theorized about with the aid of physics. Nonetheless, physics is a discipline correlated with strange, natural phenomena. Changing the question from the initial example: can a conscious experience, like a memory, change how we perceive and understand reality? This question will try be answered philosophically, but the significance lies in the fact that all other disciplines serve as a foundation for understanding this more complex question. As seen from Einstein’s uncertainty about a probabilistic theory dealing with quantum mechanics, such philosophical questions of existence and reality serve as anchors for his skepticism.
2. What is eliminative materialism? Provide three examples of it.
Eliminative materialism is a process by which the philosophy of the mind is examined from a materialist position. By “eliminating” through disciplines that cannot sufficiently provide enough logical reason, followers of this concept believe that different mental states like desire, hope, and belief do not exist, but rather they are poorly defined due to a lack of understanding in neuroscience. Hence, each discipline serves as a transitory one (biology, chemistry, physics, neuroscience) while others are “eliminated” (branches of psychology). For example, in the reading The Great Mystery and the eliminative materialism videos, certain gods and supernatural entities were shown as examples of what was thought to create lightning, disease, etc. However, with better research in fields of science, electromagnetic currents (electricity) were discovered. As for spirits causing disease, bacteria were discovered and fields dealing with medicine were able to treat these problems. Similarly, feelings of pain, desire, or hope are something psychology helps us to understand what is going on mentally. However, neuroscience does not correlate much with this terminology, hence, folk psychology or “common-sense” psychology is viewed to one day being replaced with more precise neural explanations of these mental states.