The problem of mental overpopulation is pretty easy to see. It is visible in situations like freezing on a test, cramping on the field, or overthrowing the first baseman. Basically, those times when you overthink or try to do too much in a situation, those thoughts actually become detrimental and stop us from performing as well as expected. Philosophers Ruben and Dreyfus do a really good job of highlighting this problem in the Causal Theory of Action. Thinkers like Davidson and Clarke do not do enough to solve this problem of mental overpopulation. They attempt to show that the Causal Theory of Action forms the foundation on which we act. The problem of mental overpopulation reveals the cracks in the casual theory’s foundation. Thus, the Causal Theory of Action cannot withstand the problem of mental overpopulation.
The Causal Theory of Action is one way that philosophers try to explain why humans act the way we do. Davidson is really the first to formulate and popularize the theory. He believed a person’s action was the result of a primary reason and belief under a description. In other words, “the primary reason for an action is its cause” (Davidson 686). Primary reasons consist of pro attitudes and beliefs, “which are states or dispositions, not events; therefore they cannot be causes” (Davidson 693). It is hard for me to see the cause-effect relationship Davidson talks about at times. He tries to create a causal explanation for action, but does not fully connect the dots between primary reasons and actions for every situation. He tries to create a pretty generalizable formula to explain human action. But it does not seem to apply in every situation. This is where Ruben and Dreyfus and the problem of mental overpopulation seem...
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...n actions. People act to gain expertise of a skill and bring to themselves a certain sense of fulfillment until they try to master another task. To the dismay of thinkers like Davidson and Clarke, sometimes, thinking just gets in the way.
Works Cited
Clarke, Randolph. "Skilled Activity and the Causal Theory of Action." Philosophy and
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Davidson, Donald. "Actions, Reasons, and Causes." Journal of Philosophy. 60.23 (1963): 685-
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Dreyfus, Hubert, and Stuart Dreyfus. Mind Over Machine: The Power of Human Intuition and Expertise in the Era of the Computer. New York: The Free Press, 1988. 16-51. Print.
Gould, Stephen. "The Brain of Brawn." New York Times [New York] 25 Jun 2000, Opinion. Print.
Montero, Barbara. "The Myth of 'Just Do It'." New York Times [New York] 09 Jun 2013, Opinionator. Print.
“No choices will always be right. There are ways however, to make our choices better.” (63), The chase to increase one’s performance and eventually achieve perfection has created numerous opportunities. Whether new innovations to increase productivity or faster machines to speed reactions times, new opportunities for humans to improve their performance occur every day. Still at the most basic level, where all technology is stripped, humans are naturally built to find the path of least resistance to finish their goal, very rarely will they properly finish every step in a goal regardless of innovations granting more time for decisions.“We always hope for the easy fix: the one simple change that will erase a problem in a stroke.” (21), corners will likely be cut, and steps will inevitably be skipped. Even doctors who have lives depending on them will make mistakes. For example hospitals ar...
Some people believe that immigration in the 1900’s was a good thing, however, they would be wrong. The United States government should have restricted the immigrants around that time. Some reasons are the population, the taking of new jobs and lowering wages, and diseases spreading quickly. These all factored importantly into why they should not have been allowed in.
"Personal Computers." UXL Encyclopedia of U.S. History. Sonia Benson, Daniel E. Brannen, Jr., and Rebecca Valentine. Vol. 6. Detroit: UXL, 2009. 1222-1228. Student Resources in Context. Web. 25 Nov. 2013
“The brain in the stand.” New York Times Magazine. 11 Mar. 2007 elibrary. Web. 02 apr. 2014.
Hello everybody, I would like to talk to you about a disability that we are all born with. Although in the time when our ancestors were scantily clad and running around to catch a meal or avoid being one, this disability came in handy. However, now it dominates the way we act and think throughout most of our lives. (By a show of hands how many of you think you’re in control of what you do? Now raise your hand if you think you’re good at multitasking) I’m surprised to have seen these kind of results. The reason why is because when it comes to thinking or completing a task, it's always action, action, action. Except that’s the problem because that's all we’re doing and we’re never taking a brief pause to formulate an effective plan. So now in our age of information our brains are constantly at work because they’re constantly being bombarded by so much
Overpopulation describes a condition where the number of people uses the resources in a closed environment so that it can no longer maintain that population (Elliot Institute). Around the early 1900 's, the world population had grown to a billion people, and English scholar, Thomas Malthus and partner economists predicted that mankind would outgrow its available resources because a limited amount of land wouldn 't be able to support a population with a limitless potential for growth. Today our population is more than 7 billion. Despite the fact that better health care and medicine along with advances in food production and easier access to freshwater and sanitation have given us the ability to feed ourselves and fight many sickness 's, some
Over the centuries our civilization has tried to come up with an ultimate solution concerning
They also mention that “some people may be naturally disciplined but the ability to delay gratification is a skill that can be taught. Teach children self-control early and you can improve their prospects” (McBain). If we can teach this self-control ability to our children, it should be possible for adult to improve the ability by themselves although it is a difficult way. Fortunately, Walter also said that “self-control is an ability that can or cannot be used depending on motivation to use it” (Morningstar). He might suggest that our motivation could be a countermeasure for the talent that a few children have innately. Another study stated that “Various research studies concerning education conclude that the ‘wanting to study’ is more important than intelligence when it comes to academic performance. Payot asserts that genius is, above all, a long process of patience: scientific and literary works that honour human talent the most are not at all due to the superiority of intelligence, like it is generally believed, but instead to the superiority of a willpower that is admirably owner of itself. …It could be said that it is the soul's potential that moves someone to do or not to do something. (Educating…). Everybody would have some stories of self-regulation that
work of a genius and the work of what he terms "a man of brains." (page
Forester, Tom. The Information Technology Revolution. Edited and introduced by Tom Forester. The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1985.
Developing the wisdom and action steps, depending on one’s environment, could be considered less nuanced and easier to achieve than the concentration steps. But, that is not to say that that wisdom and action
As our world expands through the growing abilities and applications of computers in our everyday lives, it seems that the role of the computer has been reversed. Before we knew that the computer only understood what we programmed it to understand; however, now the majority of our society is learning more from computers than they are able to input into it. Dumm (1986 p.69)
Paul, E. Geruzzi, “Ready or Not Computers are Coming to the People”, OA4 Magazine of History, July 2010, 25-28
There is no doubt that computers are firmly implanted in our nation’s daily existence. Everyday I use a computer at least once, either writing a paper, surfing the Internet or checking my e-mail. On a recent trip to the library to do research I was quickly escorted by a librarian to the variety of computer databases, which are the fastest and most current source of information I found a survey in Statistical Abstracts of the United States comparing students use of computers in kindergarten through college from 1984 to 1993. A total of 27.3% of students used computers in schools in 1984, while a total of 59.0% used computers in 1993. This shows a steady rise in scholastic computer use and these figures are probably greatly inflated by now in 1997.
The computer evolution has been an amazing one. There have been astonishing achievements in the computer industry, which dates back almost 2000 years. The earliest existence of the computer dates back to the first century, but the electronic computer has only been around for over a half-century. Throughout the last 40 years computers have changed drastically. They have greatly impacted the American lifestyle. A computer can be found in nearly every business and one out of every two households (Hall, 156). Our Society relies critically on computers for almost all of their daily operations and processes. Only once in a lifetime will a new invention like the computer come about.