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Post by Colin Guthrie on Jul 1, 2015 1:42:34 GMT
Colin's Weekly Essay Questions
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Post by Colin on Jul 3, 2015 17:03:59 GMT
Week I EssayQuetions:
Colin Guthrie
1. Why was Socrates sentenced to death?
Socrates was put on trial accused of corrupting the youth of Athens and denying the gods of Athens. He was a great teacher, sophist, born in Athens in 427 B.C. He did not write any of his teachings down. Instead, his student, Plato, recorded his lessons. So there is a description of his trial written by Plato called “The Apology of Socrates.” It is not actually an apology, but a long defense by Socrates. He was found guilty and sentenced to death by drinking hemlock, a poison.
In the context of history, the Peloponnesian War (431 B.C. to 404 B.C.) was a battle for dominance between Sparta and Athens (Loomis 4). At the end, Athens was beaten down and opposing factions fought for power in the city. Rational thinking was developing and old ideas were being challenged. One faction was convinced that the old ways were right and should not be challenged. Another faction challenged the old ways. Socrates actually used his method of asking a simple question about the meaning of a word to teach critical thinking. This was seen as challenging the old ways and he was put on trial. His accuser, Melitus, says he does not believe in any gods at all. Socrates denies this (MSAC 40). Regarding corrupting the youth, Socrates states he questions and exposes false wisdom. Socrates saw himself as a gift of the deity to Athens to keep the citizens on a path of virtue (MSAC 45). He saw himself like a gadfly stinging a horse. He says if they condemn him to death “you will pass the rest of your life in sleep, unless the deity, caring for you should send someone else to you (MSAC 45). “
So why was Socrates sentenced to death? People are resistant to change. Unfortunately for Socrates, the people who’s beliefs he challenged were rigid thinkers, and powerful. And he would not abandon his ideas. He used his own death to send a message. The message was to stand for truth, not tradition, when tradition hinders progress.
2. Why is there a conflict (for some) between science and religion?
Those who are lulled into the false belief that they know, can’t handle the feeling of doubt. This actually applies to those who are convinced science is “the way” as well as those who see religion as “the way.” One reason there is a conflict between these two is the perception that science and religion are opposites. Also people may have the false belief that a person must choose one or the other. The MSAC Philosophy Group’s book The Great Mystery: Matter vs. Spirit points out the conflict is based in a definition of the word “matter” (MSAC 1). People may think of science as the study of matter, with matter defined as a lifeless concrete substance that has certain predictable characteristics. The film “Limits of Science” points out that humans have neuro-constraints that limit how much and what kind of information they can obtain. Finally, people tend to think of ideas, scientific and religious, as absolute rather than evolving. With increased knowledge and awareness, understanding increases. The MSAC group points out that knowledge and understanding evolve. The example of understanding matter from Democritus saying it is made up of small invisible particles, Max Planck saying smaller particles of nucleus and electrons exist, to Hawking saying there are many universes shows the evolution of knowledge. Then there is the wonder humans experience at the unknowable about matter and how that is similar to what might be called spiritual.
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Post by Colin on Jul 4, 2015 21:08:23 GMT
Week 2 Essay Questions
1. Why is understanding physics and the general rules of the universe so important in doing philosophy?
Philosophy is the study of reality. But, what is reality? Our perception of reality is determined by our senses, our ability to see, hear, and touch (Lane, D). We have extended our perceptions by creating instruments like microscopes and telescopes that allow us to see more details of matter. But beyond our perceptions there is likely an infinite amount that we can’t perceive. To quote Sir Arthur Eddington, “Something unknown is doing what we don’t know” (Video, What is Matter?). Physics is the study of matter. So physics helps us make sense of reality by showing us things like cause and effect, sequencing of events, and the elements that make up matter. The trick is that the more we look at the details of matter the more mysterious it becomes (Lane, D). Physics is important to philosophy by giving accurate information about reality/matter. For example, Democritus, an early Greek philosopher said all things are made up of small balls that cannot be broken down called Atoms (Lane S). Physicists including Max Planck found that Atoms could be broken down into neutrons, protons, and electrons. So we could say, knowledge evolves informing philosophers more exactly what reality is made of. We are still learning more and more about matter and may find that through physics, string theory explains that even before atoms, universes are the result of vibrations of minute strings of matter. So maybe Pythagoras was on to something after all that matter vibrates creating music.
Sources:
Diem-Lane, Andrea and Lane David Christopher. The Great Mystery: Matter vs. Spirit.
Video: “What is matter?”
Lane, Shaun-Michael. Is the universe really made of tiny rubber bands?
2. What is eliminative materialism? Provide three examples of it.
Eliminative Materialism is a method of explaining a phenomenon in the world by methodically examining it with different branches of science. It seems to have come out of the idea of Occam’s Razor to increase efficiency and precision in understanding how the world works. The idea of efficiency in science was introduced as Occam’s Razor in the 14th century (Lane 21). The idea is stated as “Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily.” The way eliminative materialism is said to work, is that if a phenomenon cannot be explained by mathematics, then you turn to physics, then to chemistry, then to biology, psychology, and finally sociology. The joke is that if none of these explain it, god did it. Over the centuries we can find examples of eliminative materialism. For example, early man explained lightning as created by the god Thor, but now we attribute lightning to electromagnetic currents. Humans used to think that spirits caused diseases, but now we know that diseases are caused by viruses and bacteria. A final example is that people thought that our movement was caused by ghosts pulling our muscles, but now we know that we have a central nervous system that causes our muscles to move. (videos, Eliminative Materialism, parts 1, 2, and 3.)
Sources:
Videos “Eliminative materialism”
Diem-Lane, Andrea and Lane David Christopher. The Great Mystery: Matter vs. Spirit.
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Post by Colin Guthrie on Jul 11, 2015 22:45:22 GMT
Colin Guthrie
Week 3 Essay Questions
1. Why is the theory of evolution so important in understanding how human beings behave?
The theory of evolution helps us understand that much of human beings behavior revolves around survival. For example, humans used to have to hunt and gather to provide for their family, in today’s world, we have jobs to survive. We put locks on our doors and fences around our property to ensure safety of our families. We have dating rituals and marriage to ensure the continuation of our specie. So in this way, evolution through natural selection can explain some of our human behaviors. The theory of evolution also gives us the idea that things can evolve. The video “Emergence of Rationality” talks about when humans began thinking. This is another type of evolution. The evolution of human thought brought about changes like thinking things are held together by gravity rather than love. The video “Pivotal Consciousness” describes human ability to hold two opposite ideas in the mind at the same time. This gives us options and choices of how to react in a given situation. Also, Andrea Diem-Lane’s book, The DNA of Consciousness, talks about humans evolving the ability to imagine different scenarios. These two publications describe evolution of the human mind. They present the idea that we can imagine different options and choose the one that will bring us the least harm. That is directly related to our survival.
Video: Emergence of Rationality
Video: Pivotal Consciousness
Diem-Lane, Andrea. The DNA of Consciousness
2. Which questions do you think evolutionary theory cannot answer?
For me, the starting point for this question is the video on the “Darwin-Wallace Debate”. So Darwin and Wallace both developed the idea of evolution by natural selection and agreed on it. However, where they disagreed was on where human consciousness came from. Darwin believed consciousness came from natural selection, but Wallace said it came from something greater. I think evolutionary theory may not explain human consciousness completely. So the theory cannot answer the question “where did consciousness innovation, problem solving come from?” Andrea Diem-Lane suggests natural selection could explain our ability to imagine different possibilities but I think there is a point where something else happens. Natural selection may have gotten us to that point, but our minds take off from there. I think that perhaps somewhere in our evolution, when we started staying in one spot, started farming and became less nomadic, our needs shifted. This is where higher level problem solving starts showing up in weapons, tools, houses, and art.
Video: Darwin vs Wallace
Diem-Lane, Andrea. The DNA of Consciousness: A Brief Introduction to Evolutionary Philosophy.
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Post by Colin Guthrie on Jul 20, 2015 5:40:13 GMT
Week 4 Essay Questions
1. Explain the virtual simulation theory of consciousness.
The video, “Brain Burn”, says consciousness serves as a virtual simulator. The basics say that through evolution by natural selection our brains developed the ability to imagine different options of what can happen in a real world situation. What if I came across a tiger, I could imagine if I have a stick I can hit it. If there’s a tree nearby I could climb it if I get there soon enough. I could say to myself because I have imagined the different options, I guess I’ll carry a stick just in case and walk near trees. Then, because of my virtual simulator I have imagined options and picked the ones that increase my ability to survive. The narrator of the film says, “Consciousness is a way around pure chance by developing ant internalized map of probabilities which can be visualized internally without having to be outsourced prematurely”. We imagine different options so we can select the option that can do the least harm. This makes sense. I think it’s important to consider that consciousness is more than a virtual simulator. What happens in our imagination is only part of the picture. Diem Lane in her book Cerebral Mirage talks about different layers of Consciousness. We’re often only aware of the surface layer of Consciousness but she talks about a nested hierarchy. Perhaps we will discover in the future more information about layers of consciousness.
Video: “Brain Burn: Consciousness as a Visual Simulator”
2. How does the brain trick us and for what benefit is it for our genetic survival?
Diem-Lane talks about our brain having several layers of processing systems. She says, “We are surface surfers in the techno world and we remain dutifully oblivious of all the subterranean caverns that lurk within”. So we are aware of the surface level where we interact with the environment. Furthermore, the environment is where we physically need to survive. We find ourselves having difficulty figuring out what is real and what is illusion. Diem-Lane explains that we are experts in finding patterns that help us survive in our environment. However we did not evolve the ability to tell the difference between true and false patterns. For example, if I’m walking in the hills and I see a rattlesnake, my amygdala recognized a snake pattern and I react by jumping back. After I’ve jumped back I see that it was actually a stick. So the brain tricked me into reacting as if it were a snake to improve my chances of surviving just in case it was actually a rattlesnake. Lane says “the brain tricks us into believing something to be real when it is not, provided that such trickery provides with a survival advantage.” There are other ways the brain tricks us to improve survival that may not be so obvious. Another example is people’s reports of the near death experience. Diem-Lane describes two perspectives. One is the “spiritualist camp” that says reports of visions that transcend the concrete world. The other perspective is the “Naturalist camp” that says the visions are a result of brain biochemistry. The Naturalist camp argues that visions of after-life figures are the brain working to keep the person alive and resist dying. It appears that consciousness is not presented in an orderly fashion that scientist would appreciate but rather geared toward whatever will help a person survive whether it makes objective sense or not. The brain doesn’t mind tricking us as long as it keeps us alive.
Diem-Lane, Andrea. Cerebral Mirage: The Deceptive Nature of Awareness.
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Post by Colin Guthrie on Jul 24, 2015 3:30:46 GMT
Week 5 Essay Questions
1. Do you think artificial intelligence will be a significant problem in the future?
“Artificial Intelligence (AI) is usually defined as the science of making computers do things that require intelligence when done by humans” (Jack Copeland, Alanturing.net). Artificial Intelligence makes me think of robots. I think of the advantages of having something help with jobs around the house. But then we have been warned about possible use of robots by political enemies to dominate the world like in the “Terminator” movies. So, like the creation of the atom bomb, scientific advances can be used for harm. Stephen Hawking calls this dual use technology; technology that can be used for good or harm (Barrat). Apparently, countries are building battlefield robots. All of this brings up questions of morals and ethics. Aside from robots, David Lane and Andrea Diem-Lane write about their concern about the development of Global Positioning Intelligence, gadgets that broadcast to all where we are, who we are, and what we are like. These can be used for dating, marketing, or investigating. The authors concerns are for our loss of privacy. Hawking is also concerned that we will have trouble controlling superintelligent machines. As shown in some movies, they may become self-protective and not want to be turned off. It is hard to imagine that could really happen, but who would have though airplanes would exist, or we would have the telephone, television or computer. We need to take care and be responsible for what we create.
Barrat, James. “Why Stephen Hawking and Bill Gates Are Terrified of Artificial
Intelligence.” Huffingtonpost.com. 4-9-2015.
Copeland, Jack. “Artificial Intelligence”. Alanturing.net
Lane, David and Diem-Lane, Andrea. “Global Positioning Intelligence” in Digital
Philosophy.
2. How has technology impacted your life?
Technology has provided me with limitless information (within human limitations) on anything and everything I might find a curiosity for. A Google search away and I have all the information in the world I can understand. And that is amazing. I can learn about how to tie a tie, change the oil in my car, or find out what has been going on politically across the world. The internet has created a vast space for exploration and information. Lane and Diem-Lane in their chapter “The Book is Dead” point out the huge increase in information sources due to the internet and iPads. However, there are risks and sacrifices; one example being privacy as described in Lane and Diem-Lane’s chapter “Global Positioning Intelligence” in thei book Digital Philosophy. They warn that we are entertaining and exposing ourselves to death. I’ve noticed that when I search for a certain guitar on Google, I see ads pop up for guitars from other sites. This tells me that “they”, whoever “they” are, monitor the things we search. I find myself bothered by this because I feel as though somebody somewhere is tracking my every move. And I’m sure I am not alone in this insecurity. In the chapter “If they track our searches, could they be tracking our online purchases? Can they have private information such as credit card info? Where technology has gifted us, it has also created many risks, like the risk of losing our privacy. This makes one wonder, is anything truly private anymore?
Then there is the cell phone and computer that supports communication and social media. Lane and Diem-Lane in their chapter “Global Positioning Intelligence”, relate our over-sharing to our need for connection over privacy. This desire for connection exposes our personal information more than we intended. I am more connected with friends, family, and communities. I like this because I get fast responses to my posts. I have learned to be careful about what I say and tell. I have actually learned to be more tolerant of people who disagree with me. Nonetheless, I am aware that more information about me is out there and I don’t have control over how it may be used.
Lane, David and Diem-Lane, Andrea. “The Book is Dead” in Digital Philosophy.
Video: “The Codex Funeral”.
Lane, David and Diem-Lane, Andrea. “Global Positioning Intelligence” in Digital Philosophy.
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Post by Colin Guthrie on Jul 31, 2015 6:28:48 GMT
Week 6 Essay Questions
1. Why are Faqir Chand’s experiences important in understanding the projective nature of religious visions and miracles?
Faqir Chand’s experience are important in understanding the projective nature of religious visions and miracles because his experiences arise from someone within the spiritual community and provides a hypothesis for further research. Faqir Chand questioned his own experiences. He also valued knowledge and said science was also a guru or teacher. When Faqir Chand was stationed in Iraq and the station attacked he had a vision of his guru speaking to him. He followed the visions instructions and was saved. Later the people under his command reported having visions of Faqir Chand speaking to them on the battlefield. Faqir Chand had no awareness of being there or speaking to them. He began questioning who had appeared to him and to them. He described what he calls the secret behind many inner visions and miracles. “Now, you see no Jesus Christ comes from without in anybody/s visions. NO Rama, No Krishna, no Buddha, and no Baba Faqir comes from without to any body. The visions are only because of the impressions and suggestions that a disciple has already accepted in his mind. These impressions and suggestions appear before him like a dream. Nobody comes from without.” His experiences of seeing a vision and being seen as a vision are two sources in information that made him think of visions as within the person, not a being appearing outside the person. This is also consistent with Diem-Lane’s description of near death experiences as the brain tricking us to survive in her book Cerebral Mirage. In this instance, we experience an image that is important enough to make us want to live. This is similar to the visions reported by Faqir Chand. So his report is one source of information and Diem-Lane has extend the research supporting the idea that the experience is coming completely inside the person.
The Unknowing Sage: The Life and Word of Faqir Chand.
Diem-Lane, Andrea. Cerebral Mirage.
2. What is meant by the phrase, “Philosophy done well is science; philosophy done poorly remains philosophy”?
To say anything about this phrase, you have to figure out how you are defining “philosophy”. I say this based on Plato saying that we have to define our ideas. The on-line Webster Dictionary defines philosophy as “the study of ideas about knowledge, truth, the nature and meaning of life.”
Philosophers try to understand the different experiences we have as humans. For example, philosophers examine the things we are aware of by touching and seeing them versus the idea that we can just sit there and think in our heads. From the start, philosophers have tried to find methods to approach this goal. Pythagoras said mathematics would help us understand everything and that set philosophers on the path using math as a systematic way of trying to understand reality. Now, we are biased by the development of science that requires the ability to replicate a method and the ability to falsify information gathered. Lane ‘s concept of the “Remainder Conjecture” offers the idea that we first use tried and true scientific methods to explain an phenomenon. Then if those have been completely used and we need further explanation, then we begin to speculate. So the phrase above supports using replicable methods to explore reality and the meaning of life. The phrase above considers speculating in one’s head only to be poor philosophy.
On-line Webster Dictionary
Video: “The Remainder Conjecture”.
Evans, David. History of Western Philosophy.
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Post by Colin Guthrie on Jul 31, 2015 6:30:22 GMT
Extra Credit
I read “The Life of Pythagoras” Eds. Andrea Diem and David Lane.
Pythagoras was a philosopher in Greece who lived about 570-490 B.C.E. He was known for math and the Pythagorean Theorem. He taught a broad list of topics but I was most interested in the chapter called music and poetry. Pythagoras said that music used properly could improve a person’s health. He saw music as useful in medicine. Melodies in specific modes could help with emotions, depression or anger. He said he had calmed a young man who was so angry he wanted to burn down his girlfriend’s house. He sang a song to the man in Phrygian mode. As a musician I think that music absolutely has healing abilities. It can calm the spirit or ignite it. Finally it is amazing that Pythagoras thought the vibrations of music were fundamental and now we have string theory that is based on vibrations.
I read ”The Future of Information and Memory: Or How Your iPod Will Hold Everything In the World.” At first it was impressive and funny to think of all the information that could be stored as measured by the amount of Simpson episodes. Then it became more impressive and almost impossible to believe. But so many seemingly impossible things have happened, it could be possible. Then it started seeming absurd when we got to having enough room for a film of the entire universe’s existence played forward and backwards and the concept of a Godabyte. Then I thought, that may be impressive but what let’s not get carried away. What about what is it like to just sit and play guitar, be with a friend, or throw a ball for a dog. Do we need all that memory for that?
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