Post by dabee08 on Jan 20, 2015 7:23:07 GMT
1. Why is understanding physics and the general rules of the universe so important in doing philosophy?
Before taking this class, I could not relate physics with philosophy because I believed that physics is about experiments, while philosophy focuses more about thinking process or understanding ideas. It was inspiring when Professor Lane mentioned at the end of the overview of Week 2 video clip that you cannot do philosophy well unless you understand physics because physics is the basic rules of the universe.
From watching videos I learned that physics is important because it allows us to help understand using structured process about the ideas or theories that we do not understand with philosophy alone, and also philosophy guides us to understand physics because it helps us thinking outside of a box.
For example, a video “elegant universe” and a book “Is the universe really made out of rubber bands” discussed about the string theory, which is important because it is a theoretical framework in which the point like particles of particle physics are replaced by one-dimensional objects called strings which cannot be proven by today’s scientific experiment, yet scientists accept the string theory.
We cannot separate physics and philosophy apart. Philosophy has power to inspire people to new ideas that no one has ever tried or thought before. There have been many ‘crazy ideas’ in the history of science that were not able to be proven until later. And these ‘ideas’ could be accepted because physics helped to test these ideas and prove them using scientific methods.
Ideas such as quantum theory and string theory will someday be proven with scientific methods whether the theories were in fact true or false.
2. What is eliminative materialism? Provide three examples of it.
According to the first Youtube video clip, eliminative materialism claims that if phenomena cannot be explained fully in comprehensive by mathematics, physics, biology, etc. then it simply does not exist.
With eliminative materialism, some of the old mythological beliefs and spiritual activities that people believed in for a long time were proved to be wrong. Second part of the Youtube video showed three good examples of eliminative materialism. The first example is “Thor”, the thunder god. People in the past believed that “Thor” caused the thunder, but in reality he is not the cause of the thunder, rather it is caused by electromagnetic currents. The second example is a relation between spirits and sickness. For many years, people believed spirits were the cause of the diseases, later they discovered that bacteria and viruses caused diseases. Lastly, it was in fact central nerve system ,which cause pains in our muscles, but people believed that the ghosts were circulating the bodies and pulling muscles. Eliminative materialism helped proving that superstitious beliefs people had was not true.
Extra Credit Film - Brian Greene, The Hidden Reality
Before I watched this film, I had never believed that there can be more than one universe, but Brian Greene mentions that mathematics opens a window to those other universe. It was interesting to watch this video because people are always interested in a parallel universe. In this video, Brian Greene, who is a mathematician and explains about the realms of the universe, which we can’t see or know, using the math. There are many movies about a parallel universe, and the hero goes to the past or future to save the world to meet another him or herself in the movie. Is this possible as Brian Greene mentioned that creating an order that repeats with finite number of complexion or matter to prove the multi-universe? I am not a mathematician, and it was challenging to understand when he explained about the Big Bang relating the multi-universe, but it is a fact that people did not believe in the Big Bang in the beginning. Brian Greene believes that the Big Band is something which gave birth to our realm, yet the universe is infinitely large, so there should be more than what we see physically, and the earth may be the only a small piece. In this film, Brian Greene also explains that everything is created of particles starting from humans to even the sun and moons, and if that is the case then there should be two of everything. After watching this film, I asked a question to myself, “are we living in a multi verse?”, and I am still not sure if there is any other universe, but I think it can be possible. It is just hard to believe because we cannot see or experience them directly. But it will be great, wonderful, and scary if we can prove this “crazy idea” is real, and I will meet “another me” in future once this mystery is revealed.
Extra Credit - EINSTEIN vs. BOHR and BOHR vs. EINSTEIN
What is the quantum theory? The quantum theory is the theoretical basis of modern physics that explains the nature and behavior of matter and energy on the atomic and subatomic level. In physics history, the Einstein-Bohr debate over the quantum theory is very popular. This quantum theory focuses on the idea of Heisenberg’s uncertainty principles, which states that “The more precisely the position is determined, the less precisely the momentum is known in this instant, and vice versa.” When I researched about the quantum theory, many scientists agree to the Bohr’s debate that we cannot determine the position and the momentum of a single electron. Einstein, who was a genius realist and believed that an objective universe that exists outside of our subjective observation,. He did not agree to the quantum theory, but strived for a static model of reality. On the other hand, Bohr believed the quantum theory and accepted that we cannot determine the momentum of a single electron, but only know the probabilities and estimate the outcomes. We are still investigating the quantum theory because it is very complex. Even though modern scientists agree that Bohr’s opinion toward the quantum theory is more correct, both parties made logical arguments with supporting proof, and I think this is how we develop new ideas in different areas including philosophy, physics, and many more. Also we need to realize that most thing are still uncertain, and we need to accept that what we believe true may not be true after all.
Before taking this class, I could not relate physics with philosophy because I believed that physics is about experiments, while philosophy focuses more about thinking process or understanding ideas. It was inspiring when Professor Lane mentioned at the end of the overview of Week 2 video clip that you cannot do philosophy well unless you understand physics because physics is the basic rules of the universe.
From watching videos I learned that physics is important because it allows us to help understand using structured process about the ideas or theories that we do not understand with philosophy alone, and also philosophy guides us to understand physics because it helps us thinking outside of a box.
For example, a video “elegant universe” and a book “Is the universe really made out of rubber bands” discussed about the string theory, which is important because it is a theoretical framework in which the point like particles of particle physics are replaced by one-dimensional objects called strings which cannot be proven by today’s scientific experiment, yet scientists accept the string theory.
We cannot separate physics and philosophy apart. Philosophy has power to inspire people to new ideas that no one has ever tried or thought before. There have been many ‘crazy ideas’ in the history of science that were not able to be proven until later. And these ‘ideas’ could be accepted because physics helped to test these ideas and prove them using scientific methods.
Ideas such as quantum theory and string theory will someday be proven with scientific methods whether the theories were in fact true or false.
2. What is eliminative materialism? Provide three examples of it.
According to the first Youtube video clip, eliminative materialism claims that if phenomena cannot be explained fully in comprehensive by mathematics, physics, biology, etc. then it simply does not exist.
With eliminative materialism, some of the old mythological beliefs and spiritual activities that people believed in for a long time were proved to be wrong. Second part of the Youtube video showed three good examples of eliminative materialism. The first example is “Thor”, the thunder god. People in the past believed that “Thor” caused the thunder, but in reality he is not the cause of the thunder, rather it is caused by electromagnetic currents. The second example is a relation between spirits and sickness. For many years, people believed spirits were the cause of the diseases, later they discovered that bacteria and viruses caused diseases. Lastly, it was in fact central nerve system ,which cause pains in our muscles, but people believed that the ghosts were circulating the bodies and pulling muscles. Eliminative materialism helped proving that superstitious beliefs people had was not true.
Extra Credit Film - Brian Greene, The Hidden Reality
Before I watched this film, I had never believed that there can be more than one universe, but Brian Greene mentions that mathematics opens a window to those other universe. It was interesting to watch this video because people are always interested in a parallel universe. In this video, Brian Greene, who is a mathematician and explains about the realms of the universe, which we can’t see or know, using the math. There are many movies about a parallel universe, and the hero goes to the past or future to save the world to meet another him or herself in the movie. Is this possible as Brian Greene mentioned that creating an order that repeats with finite number of complexion or matter to prove the multi-universe? I am not a mathematician, and it was challenging to understand when he explained about the Big Bang relating the multi-universe, but it is a fact that people did not believe in the Big Bang in the beginning. Brian Greene believes that the Big Band is something which gave birth to our realm, yet the universe is infinitely large, so there should be more than what we see physically, and the earth may be the only a small piece. In this film, Brian Greene also explains that everything is created of particles starting from humans to even the sun and moons, and if that is the case then there should be two of everything. After watching this film, I asked a question to myself, “are we living in a multi verse?”, and I am still not sure if there is any other universe, but I think it can be possible. It is just hard to believe because we cannot see or experience them directly. But it will be great, wonderful, and scary if we can prove this “crazy idea” is real, and I will meet “another me” in future once this mystery is revealed.
Extra Credit - EINSTEIN vs. BOHR and BOHR vs. EINSTEIN
What is the quantum theory? The quantum theory is the theoretical basis of modern physics that explains the nature and behavior of matter and energy on the atomic and subatomic level. In physics history, the Einstein-Bohr debate over the quantum theory is very popular. This quantum theory focuses on the idea of Heisenberg’s uncertainty principles, which states that “The more precisely the position is determined, the less precisely the momentum is known in this instant, and vice versa.” When I researched about the quantum theory, many scientists agree to the Bohr’s debate that we cannot determine the position and the momentum of a single electron. Einstein, who was a genius realist and believed that an objective universe that exists outside of our subjective observation,. He did not agree to the quantum theory, but strived for a static model of reality. On the other hand, Bohr believed the quantum theory and accepted that we cannot determine the momentum of a single electron, but only know the probabilities and estimate the outcomes. We are still investigating the quantum theory because it is very complex. Even though modern scientists agree that Bohr’s opinion toward the quantum theory is more correct, both parties made logical arguments with supporting proof, and I think this is how we develop new ideas in different areas including philosophy, physics, and many more. Also we need to realize that most thing are still uncertain, and we need to accept that what we believe true may not be true after all.