Post by sherryfeng on Jan 19, 2015 8:46:37 GMT
1.Why is understanding physics and the general rules of the universe so important in doing philosophy?
Understanding physics and the general rules of the universe is really important in doing philosophy. Nowadays, Philosophy is a very broad subject which includes mathematics, ethics, morality, natural sciences, and so on. Physics is the natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through space and time, along with related concepts such as energy and force, and it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves. Being understanding 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.
2.What is eliminative materialism? Provide three examples of it.
Eliminative materialism is the radical claim that our ordinary, common-sense understanding of the mind is deeply wrong and that some or all of the mental states posited by common-sense do not actually exist. Some eliminativists argue that no coherent neural basis will be found for many everyday psychological concepts such as belief or desire, since they are poorly defined. For example, the belief in witchcraft as a cause of people's problems turned out to be wrong and the consequence is that most people no longer believe in the existence of witches. The second example is that it used to be thought that when a piece of wood bums, or a piece of metal rusts, a spiritlike substance called "phlogiston" was being released: briskly, in the former case, slowly in the latter. It later came to be appreciated that both processes involve, not the loss of something, but the gaining of a substance taken from the atmosphere: oxygen. Phlogiston emerged, not as an incomplete description of what was going on, but as a radical misdescription. The thirsd example is that right now I am thinking about a can of soda chilling in the reefer. I desire to drink it. Desire is a mental state, indeed an intentional (object-directed) mental state. Soda is a physical stuff, and drinking a physical act; but wanting or desiring a beer is mental in nature. This prima facie distinction between the mental and the physical cannot be allowed to stand on a materialist scheme.
Understanding physics and the general rules of the universe is really important in doing philosophy. Nowadays, Philosophy is a very broad subject which includes mathematics, ethics, morality, natural sciences, and so on. Physics is the natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through space and time, along with related concepts such as energy and force, and it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves. Being understanding 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.
2.What is eliminative materialism? Provide three examples of it.
Eliminative materialism is the radical claim that our ordinary, common-sense understanding of the mind is deeply wrong and that some or all of the mental states posited by common-sense do not actually exist. Some eliminativists argue that no coherent neural basis will be found for many everyday psychological concepts such as belief or desire, since they are poorly defined. For example, the belief in witchcraft as a cause of people's problems turned out to be wrong and the consequence is that most people no longer believe in the existence of witches. The second example is that it used to be thought that when a piece of wood bums, or a piece of metal rusts, a spiritlike substance called "phlogiston" was being released: briskly, in the former case, slowly in the latter. It later came to be appreciated that both processes involve, not the loss of something, but the gaining of a substance taken from the atmosphere: oxygen. Phlogiston emerged, not as an incomplete description of what was going on, but as a radical misdescription. The thirsd example is that right now I am thinking about a can of soda chilling in the reefer. I desire to drink it. Desire is a mental state, indeed an intentional (object-directed) mental state. Soda is a physical stuff, and drinking a physical act; but wanting or desiring a beer is mental in nature. This prima facie distinction between the mental and the physical cannot be allowed to stand on a materialist scheme.