Post by Khanh Phung on Jan 17, 2015 3:35:40 GMT
1) Why is understanding physics and the general rules of the uniververse so important in doing philosophy?
→ Doing philosophy can be briefly described as thinking logically, and one cannot be logical if he or she does not understand clearly what is going on in the surroundings. Being updated with the general rules of physics will not only avoid oneself from being called superstitious and uneducated, it will also helps with judging the things happen around us more rationally.
One example that a person can avoid being called superstitious is the physical phenomenon of the cracking sound inside the house. If he or she knew the very basic law of physics that things contract when it’s cold and they expand when it’s hot, which lead to the freequent sounds of the objects, that person would not be mistaken with something like ghosts and spirits. Another example, that is taken from the book The Great Mystery that everything is created by matter (which is atoms, protons, electrons), also illustrates how one can be more respected if he knows that general rule of physics. As pointed out in the book that people often get annoyed by the notion that they are made of “just matter”, but if they know the profound definition of “matter”, they will be comfortable because “matter” is just as divine as other things that were usually called as what people are made of.
We can also apply our knowledge from physics to our daily life experiences. Out of the assigned materials, many of them talk about the physical composition of light. Under different methods of measuring, they will yield different results (either light is made up of particles or waves), and none of the result is completely right or wrong. Accordingly to our lives, if two commentators, who were brought up from totally constrasting cultures, were to judge on one thing, they will definitely speak out things that have opposite values, and again none of them is completely right or wrong. Therefore, if we know everyone is different, we will know how to judge and solve daily problems more effectively.
2) What is Eliminative Materialism?
→ Eliminative materialism, according to my understand from the text, is the process that human beings use the knowledge of science to explain for the phenomenon that were previously attributed to the gods. For example, in some strange daily-life experiences, we would first use some academic disciplines such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology to find out the true mystery behind it. If all of these fields “surrender” to the phenomenon, then we would finally say “God causes this problem”; thus, we have left our superstition out behind. The next example is how we gradually explain the things that are being fantasied by the help of science. Like in the second video, once we find out the scientific reason for thunder, which was previously believed to be caused by Thor, it simultaneously leads to his death. Thus, we gradually take superstition away from our lives, and this is named Intertheoretic Reductionism. The last example, which further explains the term eliminative materialsim that human consciousness is usually flawed, is the logic that we use to interpret why certain events in our body, mind, society happened. With rationale and logic, instead of mere self-consciousness which is imperfect, we become understand the things around us better. This process is then named Intelligent Reductionism.
→ Doing philosophy can be briefly described as thinking logically, and one cannot be logical if he or she does not understand clearly what is going on in the surroundings. Being updated with the general rules of physics will not only avoid oneself from being called superstitious and uneducated, it will also helps with judging the things happen around us more rationally.
One example that a person can avoid being called superstitious is the physical phenomenon of the cracking sound inside the house. If he or she knew the very basic law of physics that things contract when it’s cold and they expand when it’s hot, which lead to the freequent sounds of the objects, that person would not be mistaken with something like ghosts and spirits. Another example, that is taken from the book The Great Mystery that everything is created by matter (which is atoms, protons, electrons), also illustrates how one can be more respected if he knows that general rule of physics. As pointed out in the book that people often get annoyed by the notion that they are made of “just matter”, but if they know the profound definition of “matter”, they will be comfortable because “matter” is just as divine as other things that were usually called as what people are made of.
We can also apply our knowledge from physics to our daily life experiences. Out of the assigned materials, many of them talk about the physical composition of light. Under different methods of measuring, they will yield different results (either light is made up of particles or waves), and none of the result is completely right or wrong. Accordingly to our lives, if two commentators, who were brought up from totally constrasting cultures, were to judge on one thing, they will definitely speak out things that have opposite values, and again none of them is completely right or wrong. Therefore, if we know everyone is different, we will know how to judge and solve daily problems more effectively.
2) What is Eliminative Materialism?
→ Eliminative materialism, according to my understand from the text, is the process that human beings use the knowledge of science to explain for the phenomenon that were previously attributed to the gods. For example, in some strange daily-life experiences, we would first use some academic disciplines such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology to find out the true mystery behind it. If all of these fields “surrender” to the phenomenon, then we would finally say “God causes this problem”; thus, we have left our superstition out behind. The next example is how we gradually explain the things that are being fantasied by the help of science. Like in the second video, once we find out the scientific reason for thunder, which was previously believed to be caused by Thor, it simultaneously leads to his death. Thus, we gradually take superstition away from our lives, and this is named Intertheoretic Reductionism. The last example, which further explains the term eliminative materialsim that human consciousness is usually flawed, is the logic that we use to interpret why certain events in our body, mind, society happened. With rationale and logic, instead of mere self-consciousness which is imperfect, we become understand the things around us better. This process is then named Intelligent Reductionism.