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Perception of self
Perception of self
Philosophy essays on the self
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The Two Sides of the “Self” Is the “self” affected by the outside world? Whitman seems to think so, but Descartes claims that we cannot trust the outside world because we are being deceived by an evil demon. Both philosopher’s obviously differ on what we can and cannot consider to be true. Descartes and Whitman had very different ideas of the self and what could affect the self. While Whitman believed that we could achieve knowledge of the self through the senses, Descartes argued that we should throw the senses to the side and only believe in what we could distinctly perceive and truly understand. However, if we mix both of these philosopher’s thoughts on the “self” we can really grow to understand and experience the world around us in a much meaningful way and therefore, allowing us to know the “self” and helping it grow. Ultimately to Whitman the self is everything we have experienced and seen. All the people we meet have an effect on us. We are them and they are us. In Song of Myself, section one he claimed that “every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you” meaning that we are each other and we share everything, even the smallest particles that make us. Whitman wrote about all of us being equal “Births have …show more content…
First he threw out his senses because he cannot trust them. He stated that they can be deceiving, but in order to be deceived he has to exist. Therefore, Descartes concludes that the only way he can prove his existence is through thought. Descartes wrote “thought, this alone is inseparable from me I am, I exist. - that is certain” and he should no longer exist once he ceases to think (pg. 18 p 27.) According to Descartes in order to exist and to be certain of our existence we must be a thing that “doubts, understands, affirms, denies, is willing, is unwilling, also imagines and has sensory perceptions” ultimately we must be intellectuals and not flow through the motion of our deceiving
Whitman, Walt. "Song of Myself." The Norton Anthology of American Literature.. Gen. ed. Nina Baym. 8th ed. Vol. C. New York: Norton, 2012. 24-67. Print.
Descartes gives reasons to say his mind could exist without his body, however these reasons are not good enough for us to agree with him. Descartes’ two strongest reasons for this are the doubt argument and the divisibility argument.
According to Descartes, “because our senses sometimes deceive us, I wanted to suppose that nothing was exactly as they led us to imagine (Descartes 18).” In order to extinguish his uncertainty and find incontrovertible truth, he chooses to “raze everything to the ground and begin again from the original foundations (Descartes 59).” This foundation, which Descartes is certain to be the absolute truth, is “I think, therefore I am (Descartes 18).” Descartes argues that truth and proof of reality lies in the human mind, rather than the senses. In other words, he claims that the existence of material objects are not based on the senses because of human imperfection. In fact, he argues that humans, similarly to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, are incapable of sensing the true essence or existence of material objects. However, what makes an object real is human thought and the idea of that object, thus paving the way for Descartes’ proof of God’s existence. Because the senses are easily deceived and because Descartes understands that the senses can be deceived, Descartes is aware of his own imperfection. He
Whitman stresses the fundamental idea of nature in this, his seventh poem: Everything is dependent-no one can be independent from everything. Therefore, we are all essentially one giant organism. A fundamental unity exists in nature, and we are a part of it. Independence is a concept that nobody can truly understand, because everything is interdependent upon one another. The texture of the poem is very helpful in understanding its meaning. Whitman's structural brilliance shines through in this poem, helping the reader grasp the concept that all things are but one.
Anil Ananthaswamy describes the self as the role the brain plays in our notions of self and existence. That our sense of self is layered, pulling information from
Whitman’s work has an arguable style that makes his work appear as an egotistical piece of literature for some and others may find a different deeper meaning within his work. This work is an excellent example of patriotic work that attempts better its audience throughout by making revelations and comparisons of different idea and thoughts about the nation's people. Whitman illustrates his interpretation of what a kind of person is a great person is and how they go about life. He intends to make his audience better as a whole and understand the underlying problem that some have. Whitman's writing truly expresses his feelings about his time and what he expects from them for a better
He believes that a supreme God has created us and has the power to deceive us. If God is perfect then he cannot deceive us. So we must assume that an evil demon is the source of our deceptions. Therefore Descartes has reason to deny the validity of his senses.
Descartes was incorrect and made mistakes in his philosophical analysis concerning understanding the Soul and the foundation of knowledge. Yes, he coined the famous phrase, “I think therefore I am,” but the rest of his philosophical conclusions fail to be as solid (Meditation 4; 32). Descartes knew that if he has a mind and is thinking thoughts then he must be something that has the ability to think. While he did prove that he is a thinking thing that thinks (Meditation 3; 28), he was unable to formulate correct and true philosophical arguments and claims. For instance, his argument for faith that a non-deceiving God exists and allows us to clearly reason and perceive was a circular argument. Another issue with Descartes' philosophy is that he wanted to reconcile scientific and religious views, which is wrong since the two maintain completely different foundational beliefs and they should exist exclusively- without relation to the other. Thirdly, he believed that the mind was the Self and the Soul, failing to recognize that humans have bodies and the outside world exists, and through which we gain our knowledgeable. Lastly, Descartes argues that ideas are all innate while they actually are not- we gain knowledge through experience.
...mething that is all-powerful has control over every thought, belief, and idea that we have. If Descartes believed this then he must believe that this deceiving God was putting the idea in his brain that if he ignores his senses he will obtain truth. If his God was deceiving and all-powerful then he will never discover truth. Descartes tries an alternative way to look at reality, the initial idea and the concept as a whole. Descartes constantly contradicted himself in his explanation and his points seem to work against themselves, as opposed to supporting his hypothesis. At the end of the First Meditation the one thing that remained certain is that we all have the same perception, but existence is our own perception. Nothing in the external world is certain. Descartes could not think outside of the “box”.
Philosophy originates from the Latin words Philo and Sophia meaning 'love of wisdom'. This love of wisdom doesn't always come easy, and often students of philosophy will question everything they previously knew, but questioning is the precise purpose of philosophy. Sometimes the answers aren't always there, and everyone's answers are not the same; this is the joy of philosophy. An important aspect of philosophy is the aspect of the self. In the textbook Philosophies for Living, edited by Robert Timko and Joan Hoff, various authors provide contrasting sets of ideas and beliefs pertaining to the self. It is my goal that through this essay, the reader will be able to understand my viewpoints and answers, based on textual citations from the before mentioned textbook, to the six following questions as they connect with the self: What is the self, what is the relationship of the me to the self, how is the self discovered/encountered, what makes the discovery of the self challenging, what aspects of the self were for me the most challenging, and what are the obstacles to the discovery of the self? These six questions will describe the nature of my encounter with the various components of the phenomenon addressed in the text known as "The Self".
He quickly releases that this is the foundation of most of his beliefs. He first acknowledges that sometime our senses can deceive us, but say that our senses is mostly sturdy. It is after this that Descartes realizes that there has been times where he has been sleeping and in his dream he was certain that he was awake and sensing real objects. Though his current senses may have be dream senses, he suggests that even dream senses are drawn from our experience of us awake. He then discovers that there are times in which he cannot distinguish whether he is in his waking state and his dream state.
Descartes investigates not only to prove that he exists, but to explain the reason behind his being. He stresses that he is only mind, or soul, or intellectual, or reason, with no body. Then goes on to describe that he will cease altogether, if he stops being a thinking thing. The body is capable of being doubted but the mind (thinking) isn’t. t. Descartes doubts about anything concerning his physical body or the outside world, but he is only certain that he think whenever he exist, and he is doesn’t exist when he doesn’t think. He comes on to this conclusion by the fact questioning his existence and what is true and untrue, in other words thinking, is the only thing he is certain about. His answer, then, is that he is a thing that thinks. This is so because the only way to doubt the mind is to use it. If the mind is being used, then there is no reason to doubt its existence. He has said that the body does not exist, so that cannot be it. He sees that the soul can be doubted, and anything that is doubted can’t exist ,so that is not something that can
Explication Through a multitude of literary devices and techniques, Walt Whitman's poem, "Song of Myself," is one of his most famous contributions to American literature. He uses simile and metaphor, paradox, rhythm, and free verse style, to convey his struggle between the relation of the body and soul, the physical and the spiritual being. He continues to disobey all social restrictions of the romantic time period. From the beginning, Whitman begins by stating, "What I shall assume, you shall assume, for every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you," proposing that the reader listen to him, for he possesses all of the answers to life. The setting is somewhat naturalistic, and offers an image of the speaker, relaxing, possibly sprawled out across a blanket, philosophizing about life, while in the middle of a peaceful meadow. As the poem later shifts in tone, and setting, Whitman starts to think about the answers to life he has come up with, based upon the past, and decides that the reader should hear him out, one final time, as his ideas have changed. This brings us to #44 of "Song of Myself." In section #44 of, "Song of Myself," Whitman's first stanza begins: "It's time to explain myself…let us stand up. What is known I strip away…I launch all men and women forward with me into the unknown. The clock indicates the moment…but what does eternity indicate? Eternity lies in bottomless reservoirs…its buckets are rising forever and ever, they pour and they pour and they exhale away." Whitman is simply stating that he wants to tell the purpose of his madness. The madness that Whitman expresses is that of power and self-confidence. Whitman has written this based upon his experiences in life. Through these experiences, he has grown to know certain things about life and tries to pass them down to the reader. Throughout the beginning of the poem, Whitman takes the reader by the hand and demands that he follows Whitman and his ideas, because based on his own life Whitman holds the answers to the reader's questions. But now, he asks the reader to erase everything that he has previously said - forget the past. Why don't we try something new? We have to focus on the present, not on the past, but also to focus on what we are going to experience in the future, what can we expect?
Whitman was a poet who thought the body was equally important as the soul for human beings. “Behold, the body includes and is the meaning, the main concern, and includes and it the soul.” He believed that our bodies and souls cannot be divided, and to lash a man’s body is the same as lashing a man’s soul. He said that soul and body is same thing with different names.
A self is some sort of inner being or principle, essential to, but not identical with, the person as whole. It is that in a person that thinks and feels. The self is usually conceived in philosophy as that which one refer to with the word “I”. It is that part or aspects of a person that accounts for personal identity through time. In spite of all the ways one can change with time, the self is invariably same through time. A self is what is supposed to account for the fact that an individual is same person today as he/she was at the age of five, given that all his characteristics have changed over time. For instance, compared to his childhood, this individual is stronger, taller, and smarter; he has different aspirations and dreams, different thoughts and fears, his interests and activities are remarkably different. Yet, he is still the same ...