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Materialism
Qualitative - Qualitative research
Qualitative - Qualitative research
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Materialism is the belief that all things can be explained in physical terms or by science. Frank Jackson argues against this belief. Jackson’s philosophy is that not only are materialism false, but he also claims that consciousness is a subjective experience that can not be defined by any physical term or by science. The nonphysical experience known as qualia is Jackson’s explanation of consciousness. Qualia is the nonphysical feeling that can not be explained in physical terms or by science. Humans can not understand the feeling of qualia without experiencing it themselves.
Materialism suggests that everything that occurs have some type of scientific relationship or physical term. Jackson goes through his argument looking for proof until he gets one idea. Jackson performs an experiment that demonstrates that consciousness is a qualia feeling and that one can not understand or learn the feeling with out experiencing it. The subject he uses is Mary. Mary is an extremely bright scientist and since she could remember she was placed in a room with nothing but black and white. With limiting her sight to only this black and white gray-scale, she is unaware of what true color looks like. All her life she is educated through newspapers, television and teachers giving lectures. Near the end of the experiment she has mastered every aspect of the physical terms and science explaining the process of viewing color. One example was that she knew that an apple was red, but she cannot grasp the concept if she has never seen it. The final part of the experiment is to present to her real color. They use a red apple to demonstrate this.
The hypothesis for the experiment follows the laws of materialism. They hypothesized that Mary would not have a shocking reaction to the apple. They believed that she would know that the apple carried those characteristics. In the conclusion of the experiment they find out that their hypothesis was wrong and that Mary was shocked to find out what red really looked like. For the first time in her life she noticed that there was more to the red apple than the physical description. She felt qualia, the feeling of actually seeing the color. This proves that materialism cannot fully explain the world.
The generalization that, “The decision of the Jackson administration to remove the Cherokee Indians to lands west of the Mississippi River in the 1830s was more a reformulation of the national policy that had been in effect since the 1790s than a change in that policy,” is valid. Ever since the American people arrived at the New World they have continually driven the Native Americans out of their native lands. Many people wanted to contribute to this removal of the Cherokees and their society. Knox proposed a “civilization” of the Indians. President Monroe continued Knox’s plan by developing ways to rid of the Indians, claiming it would be beneficial to all. Andrew Jackson ultimately fulfilled the plan. First of all, the map [Document A] indicates the relationship between time, land, and policies, which affected the Indians. The Indian Tribes have been forced to give up their land as early as the 1720s. Between the years of 1721 and 1785, the Colonial and Confederation treaties forced the Indians to give up huge portions of their land. During Washington's, Monroe's, and Jefferson's administration, more and more Indian land was being commandeered by the colonists. The Washington administration signed the Treaty of Holston and other supplements between the time periods of 1791 until 1798 that made the Native Americans give up more of their homeland land. The administrations during the 1790's to the 1830's had gradually acquired more and more land from the Cherokee Indians. Jackson followed that precedent by the acquisition of more Cherokee lands. In later years, those speaking on behalf of the United States government believed that teaching the Indians how to live a more civilized life would only benefit them. Rather than only thinking of benefiting the Indians, we were also trying to benefit ourselves. We were looking to acquire the Indians’ land. In a letter to George Washington, Knox says we should first is to destroy the Indians with an army, and the second is to make peace with them. The Indian Trade and Intercourse Act of 1793 began to put Knox’s plan into effect. The federal government’s promise of supplying the Indians with animals, agricultural tool...
Jackson contends that if physicalism were true, Mary would know what a color looks like before she would ever see that color. This, however, is false since Mary could not possibly know what the color looks like before exposure to it. It is impossible for any person to imagine what a color looks like before they see any color at all. Jackson writes, "imagination is a faculty that those who lack knowledge need to fall back on."
The Victim Precipitation Theory argues that the victim provokes the attack against the (Argosy University, 2016). The reason I selected this victimology theory is because Nicole proceeded to date or be involved with Ron and still came and went to the residence where she was married to Simpson. Nicole knew he was unstable, she should have removed herself from that residence and definitely not have brought anyone she was involved with there. By doing that I feel it might have provoked Simpson, by all means his actions are not justified, but could have been provoked in his mind be some of Nicole’s actions. The Criminology theory that I feel best fits this case is the Social Disorganization Theory. The Social Disorganization Theory is a person’s physical and social environments are primarily responsible for that person’s own behavior (Argosy University, 2016). In this case I believe Simpson was embarrassed that his marriage failed and Nicole was out flaunting a new relationship and was happy. This was belittling and embarrassing to the famous football player and he was unable to control the situation, so he took matters into his own hands. Simpson’s behavior was due to his environment, and he got away with it because of the love society had for him as a football player and actor. While Nicole’s murder was unjustified, Simpson felt his actions were justified because he got away with it. Simpson said to Esquire Magazine in 1998, “Let’s say I committed the crime…even if I did do this, it would have been because I loved her so much, right?” (About Relationships, 2016). A statement like that only tells me in his mind his actions were justified, even though his case was
I am faced with the philosophical task of defending either dualism or materialism, depending on which one is most attractive to me. So either I support the theory of dualism, which is the belief that there is both a physical and a spiritual state, or I believe in materialism, which is the belief that everything that exists is material or physical. Although I believe materialism to be easier to prove, I find dualism more attractive to believe. Throughout the following, I will attempt to build a case for the theory of dualism giving insights both documented and personal. I will also shed light on the theory of materialism and the proofs that support this theory; showing that although materialism has a strong argument, essentially, it the less attractive of the two.
...ctive and objective experiences are. The analogy of the bat is an exceptional case, because no human has any idea of the bat’s perception of the world. The mind-body problem is directly linked to this idea. One might attempt to explain his perception, but he is unable to completely communicate his subjective experience. The analogy of the butterfly is an interesting one; the answer may seem obvious, and so the rest of the problem is ignored. The mind-body problem can’t be solved until scientists learn more about consciousness and mental states. Physicalism (i.e. materialism) cannot be the answer according to what we know now, but could be proven true in the future.
In conclusion, Block fails to give an answer to Chalmers’ hard problem. While both Block and Chalmers hold the idea that there is a separation between the physical access to the world and phenomenal consciousness, Block’s account fails to escape the invalidation of his argument with the example of Mary’s case through the knowledge argument. However, an insightful explanation of the access consciousness and how it work provides us a better understanding of cognitive properties, and certainly separates it from phenomenal consciousness. Though this essentially becomes categorized under the easy problem, and leaves the hard problem at bay.
In Plato 's “The Apology of Socrates”, Socrates is charged with not accepting the gods recognized by the state, devising new gods, and corrupting the youth of Athens. However, the word "apology" in the title is not our modern understanding of the word. The name of the speech stems from the Greek word "apologia," which translates as a speech made in defense. Thus, “The Apology of Socrates” is an account of the speech Socrates makes at the trial in which he defends himself, not apologizes. (The Apology) (SparkNotes Editors)
He agrees that she does acquire new abilities, such as the ability to imagine what seeing, remembering, and recognizing what red is like. But he questions, is it plausible that is all she will acquire? Earlier on in the argument, Jackson establishes that the knowledge Mary lacked is the knowledge about the experiences of others, not about her own. Upon leaving the room, she surely experiences something new and attains new knowledge, arguably abilities, but, when she sees her first red tomato, she will realize how impoverished her conception of the mental life of others had been all along. The features of their experiences were only known to them and hidden to her until she walked out of the room. Assuming again she knew all the physical facts about them, what she did not know was not the facts of experiences, but of actual facts of them. In addition to this initial claim, Jackson introduces an interesting point. He says lets assume Mary had a lecture on skepticism when she was in the room. When she is let out and sees a red tomato, she understands better what other people’s conscious experience is like. But then she remembers skepticism. She doubts herself; does she actually know more of their experience? Jackson points out that her representational abilities remained constant throughout, so what was she indecisive about? At this point, he leads the reader to his answer- she learns factual knowledge of
In 399 bce, Socrates was sentenced to death by the Athenian jury for supposedly corrupting the youth’s morals and thought patterns. Socrates had spent his life as an Athenian citizen, fighting in the Peloponnesian wars and as he got older, practiced philosophy and critical questioning, teaching other Athenians free of charge. In Plato’s Apology, he records the speech Socrates made to the jury during his trial. Its title Apology in this case, reads the opposite as it would today; his speech is his defense, for he believes he has not done wrong.
He claims that science has been used extensively to describe almost every property of the world. Science has led to the description of the world as a compilation of “increasingly complex arrangements of physical constituents” (Rosen 372). However, an aspect that is not included in science’s complex explanation of the world is states of consciousness, like sensations and pains.
Lewis tried to undermine Jackson’s argument using the ability response. This response distinguishes between ‘knowledge how’ and knowledge that’. Consider two examples:
Looking through the eyes of an adolescent, many things are seemingly a necessity. From clothes to materialistic things, advertising has brainwashed the American society and has stripped them of their better judgement. Although there are many perks to advertising like awareness, promotion, and entertainment, the advertising world is harmful to society.
In philosophy, reductive materialism indicates that everything that exists can be explained in physical terms. Moreover, all phenomena are only physical phenomena that could be explained by natural laws. Reductive materialism is a theory that postulates that mental states can be reduced to physical states. For example, a belief, a desire or a thought is nothing more than certain physical-chemical or neural configurations of the brain.
Apology of Socrates was a famous historical account written by Plato. In this account, Socrates was not apologizing for anything; instead, he was defending for himself at his trial (Plato’s Apology 11). Thus, the title of this account was actually misleading. Socrates was brought in a trial because he was charged of being impiety to gods, inventing new deities, claiming the wisest man, and corrupting the youth of Athens (Plato’s Apology 16). However, I felt the main reason for his accusation was due to his teaching method, which might lead to a revolution.
Socrates on the other hand, was self thought and believed that he was wise enough to know that he could be ignorant at times. Unlike the sophists, he was not rich and did not ask for fines to teach people of this wisdom he had learnt. He was an orator, a great orator at that but according to the dialogue in Plato’s Apology (1.17c) he was not the kind of man who would talk in a formal tone as he was used to talking in common places. Socrates also saw himself as a god sent to open the eyes of the people to see what they had not learned.