Post by samanthawright on Jan 21, 2015 8:42:17 GMT
1. Why is understanding physics and the general rules of the universe so important in doing philosophy?
First to be able to understand why physics is important to philosophy, we need to understand what physics and philosophy are. According to Wikipedia philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with reality, existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. As for physics according to Wikipedia it 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. So now how are these two important to each other? When we ask questions like in the book "Is the World Really Made Out of Tiny Rubber Bands" the child had asked what is a golf ball made out of? As he looked at in a philosophical way he started to take apart this golf ball just to find rubber bands. As he kept getting more and more into what the rubber bands were made of and what were those little particles that make up the rubber band he started using physics and studying the matter of what the rubber band was made of. Physics begins to describe why things happen in philosophy and help support theories. Just like the String theory which is based off of everything being made up of lots of tiny things.
2. What is eliminative materialism? Provide three examples of it.
Eliminative materialism is a materialist position in the philosophy of mind. Its primary claim is that people's common-sense understanding of the mind is false and that certain classes of mental states that most people believe in do not exist. (Wikipedia) One example of eliminative materialism would be like in the video "Eliminative Materialism part one" that if things couldn't be explained by mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, psychology, and sociology then the joke was that it was okay to say that "God did it". Another example was that it was thought to believe that Thor was the creator of thunder, then it became a realization that thunder was due to electrical magnetic currents.(part two of video) One last example of eliminative materialism is that when one was to get sick it was believed that spirits were the cause of diseases, when in reality it was the cause of bacteria. (part two of video)
First to be able to understand why physics is important to philosophy, we need to understand what physics and philosophy are. According to Wikipedia philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with reality, existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. As for physics according to Wikipedia it 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. So now how are these two important to each other? When we ask questions like in the book "Is the World Really Made Out of Tiny Rubber Bands" the child had asked what is a golf ball made out of? As he looked at in a philosophical way he started to take apart this golf ball just to find rubber bands. As he kept getting more and more into what the rubber bands were made of and what were those little particles that make up the rubber band he started using physics and studying the matter of what the rubber band was made of. Physics begins to describe why things happen in philosophy and help support theories. Just like the String theory which is based off of everything being made up of lots of tiny things.
2. What is eliminative materialism? Provide three examples of it.
Eliminative materialism is a materialist position in the philosophy of mind. Its primary claim is that people's common-sense understanding of the mind is false and that certain classes of mental states that most people believe in do not exist. (Wikipedia) One example of eliminative materialism would be like in the video "Eliminative Materialism part one" that if things couldn't be explained by mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, psychology, and sociology then the joke was that it was okay to say that "God did it". Another example was that it was thought to believe that Thor was the creator of thunder, then it became a realization that thunder was due to electrical magnetic currents.(part two of video) One last example of eliminative materialism is that when one was to get sick it was believed that spirits were the cause of diseases, when in reality it was the cause of bacteria. (part two of video)