Post by Anthony Yu on Jul 13, 2015 6:14:31 GMT
1. Why is understanding physics and the general rules of the universe so important in doing philosophy?
Philosophy is the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence. Personally, I think of philosophy as the study of understanding. The urge of knowing where everything comes from. Like Socrate said, "Wonder is the feeling of a philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder," it all started with a question mark. Why does an apple fall to the ground? Why does the Sun rises from the east everyday? Why does the thought-to-be-wave-like light possess particle-like property when we shine it onto a metal (Photoelectric effect, Einstein)? And what does the very act of measuring have to do with the light's behavior (double slit experiment)? Many questions have been answered by the great scientists in the history, but many more questions yet to have a solution. This is why I decided to become a physics major. Physics is also the study of understanding, except in a mathematical way. However, many things are still unexplainable by physics, such as subjects of soul, spirit, and consciousness. Even our deterministic world has been challenged by quantum mechanic. On the journey of searching for the truth, one needs to understand the rules played by the universe and thus understand physics.
2. What is eliminative materialism? Provide three examples of it.
Let's start out with a definition first. Here is the one on Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Eliminative materialism is the radical 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. It took me quit an effort to make sense of that really negative sentence, but with the help of the films, I came up with a rough understanding of what eliminativism really are. As a Folk Phycology huger, eliminative materialism believes that every theory can be generalized into something more basic. Just as chemistry is talking about interaction among atoms, and fundamental behavior of atom is the studying of physics. Another example would be the cause of thunder described in the film. Thunder used to be understand as the god Thor messing with the sky. However, it can now be explained by electromagnetism as the transfer of energy through ionized atoms. On the other hand, theories that cannot be reduced into something more simpler are simply wrong. As a result, eliminative materialism rejects the idea of consciousness since we do not know where it comes from, neither do we know its existence. To go with this week's topic, the light-dark bands shows up on the other side of the screen of the double slit experiment can be explained by the interference property of light wave. The two bands result can be thought as shooting marble through two slits. But why does one end up with a two bands result when observing the path of the electron, and the other ends up with a interference pattern? God know.
Philosophy is the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence. Personally, I think of philosophy as the study of understanding. The urge of knowing where everything comes from. Like Socrate said, "Wonder is the feeling of a philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder," it all started with a question mark. Why does an apple fall to the ground? Why does the Sun rises from the east everyday? Why does the thought-to-be-wave-like light possess particle-like property when we shine it onto a metal (Photoelectric effect, Einstein)? And what does the very act of measuring have to do with the light's behavior (double slit experiment)? Many questions have been answered by the great scientists in the history, but many more questions yet to have a solution. This is why I decided to become a physics major. Physics is also the study of understanding, except in a mathematical way. However, many things are still unexplainable by physics, such as subjects of soul, spirit, and consciousness. Even our deterministic world has been challenged by quantum mechanic. On the journey of searching for the truth, one needs to understand the rules played by the universe and thus understand physics.
2. What is eliminative materialism? Provide three examples of it.
Let's start out with a definition first. Here is the one on Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Eliminative materialism is the radical 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. It took me quit an effort to make sense of that really negative sentence, but with the help of the films, I came up with a rough understanding of what eliminativism really are. As a Folk Phycology huger, eliminative materialism believes that every theory can be generalized into something more basic. Just as chemistry is talking about interaction among atoms, and fundamental behavior of atom is the studying of physics. Another example would be the cause of thunder described in the film. Thunder used to be understand as the god Thor messing with the sky. However, it can now be explained by electromagnetism as the transfer of energy through ionized atoms. On the other hand, theories that cannot be reduced into something more simpler are simply wrong. As a result, eliminative materialism rejects the idea of consciousness since we do not know where it comes from, neither do we know its existence. To go with this week's topic, the light-dark bands shows up on the other side of the screen of the double slit experiment can be explained by the interference property of light wave. The two bands result can be thought as shooting marble through two slits. But why does one end up with a two bands result when observing the path of the electron, and the other ends up with a interference pattern? God know.