Mid Term

Introduction to Philosophy Fall 2015 Mid Term



1.) Yvette Garcia



2.) I have completed all the assigned readings having and liking all the points that were made to me.



3.) I have watched all the required films. I found them to be very interesting and brought up valid points to the argument. They also led me to think differently and had me asking myself questions.







4.) Weekly Essays:



Essay Questions: Week One & Two



1. Why was Socrates sentenced to death?

Socrates is arguably one great philosophical thinker that has ever lived on this earth. His way of thinking has left mankind dumbfounded by his teachings. At the old age of 70 years old, he was taken to trial. He was taken to trial on two major charges “he did not believe in the gods recognized by the state, the other he had corrupted the Athenian youth by his teachings.” Lane Page (2) What Socrates did to defend himself was eye-catching to me as he neither denies or confesses the first accusation, but he does show that in several instances he conformed to the religious customs of his country. Socrates also is able to speak his mind because he is uninfluenced by the fear of that imaginary evil and death. He also defends himself in the second charge by having a cross examination with one of his accusers, a man by the name of Milieus. He reduces to the dilemma of charging him with corrupting the youth, making him not liable for the punishment. In Socrates’ closing argument he says death is going to take him to a better happier place. People believed in the underworld and thought that death was horrific, but Socrates had a different view on that. Socrates’ was sentenced to drinking the poisonous hemlock, even when he was about to die he was still the cheerful person. He was letting us know that he was genuine in what he was preaching. “Criteo thereupon asks if he has any commands go give, Socrates answers with his usual cheerfulness “just as you please, if only you can catch me”.” Lane (Page 79)







2. Why is there a conflict (for some) between science and religion?



Religion has always been a mean for people to have answers to questions they’ve never known, creation of stories gave a way for people to understand and not seem lost of how their world was created. Religion also gives hope for mankind for it preaches the idea of an after life, where people will be judged accordingly for their actions, as this creates a series that checks and balances in one's life. Science on the other hand offers theories that are not proven and backed in the real world giving one a dilemma in believing it. I think many people who are afraid of people who believe in science because they think they will love this world and commit to many grave sins. This type of thinking is wrong because people who believe in science want to do good. Many people often say that religion has limitations, but in reality science has the same or even more. The video limits of science it goes in depth talking about the limitations science faces. “Einstein's limitation of light is theory where people cannot see all types of light.” (limitations of science) Another interesting point made in the book Matter Vs Spirit is that god cannot be explained by science rather is supernatural in beyond nature. “The only way to do this for theists is to posit that God is outside of time and space; that is, God is beyond nature—super nature, or supernatural—and therefore cannot be explained by natural causes.” Lane (Page 32) “The limits of our skull are the limits of our understanding” ( limits of science) this quote can be useful because it shows that sometimes our minds are incapable of thinking that there is higher deity.











Week 3& 4: Essay Questions















1. Why is understanding physics and the general rules of the universe so important in doing philosophy?



To answer this question I am going to use a quote from the book Quantum Weirdness, “Deep understanding of the very limits of the scientific enterprise and how human investigations of objective phenomena are intimately limited by its own apparatus. This raises a philosophical conundrum which is age-old.” (p. 15). Many people think that physics and understanding the general rules of the universe are the only viable ways to answer many of the questions on this planet and in the universe, but to me having a deep knowledge in physics and truly understanding it will unlock the hidden potential this universe has to offer. Physics and philosophy are both intertwined in a way that they both need each other to work, philosophy requires one to have a background in the sciences and understanding how the universe works. For if you're trying to prove your theory that u make a mistake at one level in your argument it collapses because it is completely wrong. The quote I used above is a good example of why we can't always trust science to answer our questions, it is revolving around them, in this course it is that we are limited to our own apparatus. That is why we need philosophy more than ever for it does not put computation ahead of conceptual clarity and can lead to confusion.







In the very interesting video “Quantum Uncertainty: Einstein Doesn't Gamble”, it talks about how Einstein was fundamentally problematic and also shows that science can be wrong too.















2. What is eliminative materialism? Provide three examples of it.



Eliminative materialism is the process of using a systematic set of processes that doesn't circulate around the use of common sense, rather the fundamentals of subjects that we know like mathematics, science, sociology and psychology. In the video eliminative materialism part one it talks about how “If the phenomena could not be explained fully and comprehensible to mathematics then one turns to physics and if that doesn't work to chemistry than to biology then to psychology.” There are three examples that our professor gave us that we can use for eliminative materialism in the video “Eliminative Materialism” the first one is that instead of talking about the God of thunder Thor we talk about electromagnetic currents that were around us. The second example is instead of talking about spirits as the causes of diseases we talked about bacteria's and viruses as the real causes of diseases. The third example in the video, it talked about how we used to believe that there were tiny little ghosts pulling on our muscles then we later talked about how we have a central nervous system. We eliminated physiological beliefs in the past and now rely- on the hard sciences for our answers, which I believe is the right way to do things.











Week 5 & 6:



1.) The theory of evolution is so important to understand for it shows on how human beings behave. It shows how we evolved to where we are at now, there is a step by step process showing where we came and how far we were able to evolve to the advanced species we are today. The theory of evolution states in order for us to evolve we must mutate and when we mutate some of the genes that are bad don’t get used but the genes that will benefit us do get used. I think this is astonishing on how through process of mutation we pick genes that are most suited for us to flourish into better species so we can prosper long lives. "We now have convincing proof that evolution occurs when accidental mutations create features such as spots or stripes that impart an advantage for attracting mates, hiding from or confusing predators, or gaining access to food," (Page 15) Asking why is also vital in the theory of evolution because it shows that we behave in a manner that questions the state of where we are at and that were always looking for the best answer to better our lives on a daily basis. In the video of Pivotal consciousness it states “any organism that can develop a mental pivoting tool will develop new and tremendous strategies” if we are always questioning what is around us we will we always be bettering ourselves.



2.)To me the evolutionary theory cannot answer the question of what is the point of living without a purpose. Some people might say that it is simple there is no purpose to life and that we are here by random coincidence. Critical thinkers of higher education can come to simple reason that this thinking is not viable but irrational for someone to think so. The purpose I feel is what really drives the human race, a tired parent who works 2 full time jobs just to feed her kids, has a purpose and drive to make her kids not starve. On page 32 of The DNA of Consciousness it talks about how we need purpose it goes as follows "We cannot live without purpose, even if that purpose is an adaptive fiction evolved over eons of time designed to blind those with such sentiments from the truth that nature has no such sentiment.” This quote proves that we do need purpose in our lives and without it there is no point in living. In the video “Evolutionary Imperative” it talks about how every organism is competing because nature is competitive and if we don't have purpose to be competitive we would die off.







5.) Socrates is arguably one of the greatest philosophical thinkers that has ever lived, and used an impressive method for understanding another person's truth claims by seeing how he or she came about to that argument. He builds up building blocks seeing what led to how he came to that conclusion and by doing so he pinpoints a problem in the argument and attacks for if one step in the argument it went wrong then it all goes crashing down because one cannot have a strong argument based not true things. It was extremely efficient because one can destroy any argument that you face and it shows how smart and wise Socrates really was. It got him into a lot of trouble because he was questioning how things came to be step by step and once he did so people weren't at ease for they feel like their way of life was threatened and two charges were files, in the Book How Socrates died on page 2 it brings about his charges ‘‘one that he did not believe in the gods recognized by the State, the other that he had corrupted the Athenian youth by his teachings.’’



6.) The conflict between science and religion is linguistic conundrum because the terms that we use for religion are outdated they seem not fit our society's standard but in reality most religions have real life examples and trains of thought that are really good examples to use. We get lost in saying this happened a long time ago no way this could happen again or this is a bunch of made up stuff. On page 3 of the great mystery it talks about how we use outdated terms to myths for example “Yet, the real problem may be linguistic and not existential. In other words, it may be the outdated definitions. We have to look at science more colorful than it really is, what i mean by that is there are multiple theories that have answers to our problems we can't always say there is just one solution.



7.) To me Einstein lost the debate, however these are both exceptional thinkers for their time period and will be looked at for many generations to come. The point where Bohr won the debate was because Einstein couldn't explain all the effects of quantum Mechanics which is fine and right but you can't win an argument if you don't have evidence in what you believe. Einstein was trying to build his argument on a theory which he still totally didn't understand. Bohr stated on page 696 that “it is based on a coherent mathematical formalism covering automatically any procedure of measurement.”



8.) Understanding physics is elemental in doing philosophy

well because if one does not have a background in the sciences he cannot prove

his argument accordingly, you have to be knowledgeable at the topic at hand. If

someone brings to a light an argument you have to counter it with why it wrong

giving proof that its wrong that is why it is vital to understand physics. This

doesn't mean we totally forget about other subjects in the video “Quantum

Uncertainty” it talks about how we always make mistakes and there is no right

answer.



9.) String theory by definition is a “theoretical framework

in which the point-like particles of particle physics are replaced by

one-dimensional objects called strings.” (wikipedia) String theory helps us

better understand and visualize that everything around us is made up of little

things. Radical ideas like this can alter own psychological outlooks on life in

general by seeing that the world is complex, we think we understand our lives

and why we live them but the truth of the matter is we really don't know we

tell ourselves theories and facts just to make ourselves happy.



10.) The theory of evolution is the cornerstone of modern

biology because the central tenets of biology circulate and prove the theory of

evolution. Religion doesn't really circulate around biology, but evolution does

it at every step showing detailed proof how simple cell organisms kept

developing into the complex species they are today. Biology and evolution go

hand in hand together because they can prove each other right through

scientific reasoning and proof through experiments and fossil records. A deep understanding

of natural selection will help us understand human behavior because it will

show us how we really can’t to be, giving us a detailed map of what genes we

used to be an advanced species and evolve through the some of the harshest

climates.



11.) The evolutionary reason why we ask why is because it

is the pivot foot of consciousness asking the fundamental questions that lead

to further better ourselves and society at every aspect. Having pivotal

consciousness where you always asking questions and not being satisfied is the

key evolutionary trait of intelligence for it shows that our brains are

hardwired for something more. “it allows for a virtual simulator to turn and

think the very options they pretend, it allows the mind to go in many directions.”

(Pivotal Consciousness Video)



12.) Plato allegory of the cave relates to our theory of

science because it shows that once a particular set of ideals and beliefs come

on a certain topic we believe it without questioning it because that's our

reality to us and thinking like this wrong. The prisoners who were born in the

cave thought that's all the word was a cave in the dark where there is no

light, and that makes sense for if our customers something to your whole life

you end up getting used to it. That is why in theory of science we must keep

questions or understanding of science and further trying to better our reality.



13.) Nietzsche’s myth of eternal recurrence is that we

live the same life and the same sorrows over and over again for eternity.

This concept is extremely mind boggling and it hard to even conceive happening

for if this were to even happen this would be depressing if you lived a sad

life, but if you lived a long happy life it would be amazing to go through it

again. A concept like this alters one's life here and now by making one try to

live life to the fullest and be happy every day because if you were to live

everyday again and you're miserable those days it would be like torture because

you're living that way for eternity so it makes people rethink their lives.



14.) Darwin and Wallace disagreed that evolution by natural

selection couldn't have happened because natural selection doesn't explain how

we as humans have the most complex sophisticated minds the world has ever seen,

Darwin believed that our minds formed by means of natural selection. They both

however agreed that natural selection is “operative” and by all means a way of

how people and organisms adapted through the years.



15.) The evolutionary imperative is the chief goal of all

organisms to reproduce themselves, we can see this with all living creatures

and organisms that are on earth each one if these unique creatures want to

reproduce to have offspring they can keep passing from one generation to

another. It works because it keeps humanity and nature going it makes sure that

species keep surviving for many years.



16.) The film that is I like the most by far is Pivotal

consciousness, to me i think it really extraordinary that by asking the

question why? We become more and more intelligent daily by asking that simple

question because it challenges to make us better daily.



17.) My favorite book so far is the DNA of Consciousness,

after reading that book I thought and thought of what world really meant to me

and I thank that book for giving me that inspiration to keep looking for the

answers. It also showed that what life without purpose, purpose is key to go

about living life if there is no purpose what is the point of living.