Weeks 3&4

1. Understanding physics and the general rules of the universe is important in philosophy because of the unique relationship they tend to have, wherein philosophy attempts to offer a hypothesis that general physics can neither confirm nor deny. In the world of physics and the literal, the growth and development of understanding of these fields cannot keep up with the speed of the hypothetical idea and human philosophy, but even philosophy cannot compete with the accuracy and logical nature of physics. The constant push and pull between the two fields is very parallel to the dynamic between empiricism, a theory that knowledge comes only or primarily from the senses, and rationalism, a theory that all knowledge and truth can be obtained purely through deductive reasoning. Like physics and philosophy, the two appear to be opposites, but what makes each idea unique is also what makes it so valuable to its counter-part. Empiricism, like physics, is a perspective that focuses mainly in the instantaneous moment and deals with numbers, calculations, and ratios. Rationalism, like philosophy, tends to have its eyes set on bigger prizes, and usually ones that physics and empiricism have no explanation for. In other words, philosophy may provide hypotheses physicists couldn’t predict otherwise, while physics provides the test for legitimacy.

2. According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, eliminative materialism is the 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.” At its core, eliminative materialism is the acknowledgment of the intellectual limitations of the human mind. In one of our required watching films, the process is described as one moving from one field of study to another in search of an explanation for a certain phenomenon, and, in the event that such a search provides an inadequate explanation, for said phenomenon to be filed under the category of “God did it.” As the human species gains a greater understanding of the world they inhabit, they will certainly be able to reassess and recategorize their diagnoses, moving from attributing phenomena like thunderstorms to the Norse Gods battling in the heavens, to something a bit more scientific like electromagnetism. Rain dances and rain sticks were once believed to control the weather, but today Doppler Radars are generally considered more reliable. A unique example is a blackhole in space, which defies all of our understanding about the universe, putting us in a position of acknowledging the massive amount of information we simply don’t know.