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The mind and behavior
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In “The Problem of Other Minds” Carruther 's argues that we as humans, cannot have knowledge of other people 's mental states other than our own. It is possible that when one calls an object red, it may appear green to another person. Thus, both members could possibly have the same or completely different experience without ever noticing, as we call those experience by the same names. Carruther 's arguments shouldn 't be taken seriously, as I believe the the problem could be looked at from analogy. That is to say, if I were to experience something such as pain with similar reactions towards how you react, wouldn 't it be rational to say that you and I both have a mind ? If one of the purposes of having a mental state is to alert humans in …show more content…
It is to say, being the fact that I have privilege to access my own mind and mental experience but am unable to do so to others, we infer to the fact that there is a possibility that other people are without minds or are even possibly be mindless robots. When responding the question from analogy, one could question the fact that the argument of, if I have a similar reaction towards something that you do as well, then we both have minds could be an outlier to the problem. It is possible that I am the only person who has a mind which therefore makes the analogy a special case. If we reconstruct the argument of rather making a single correlation between a single mind and behavior to the correlations of many mental states with behaviors we may confirm the argument that the behavior of others is caused by a mental states. Just as when you are feeling sad, the behavior that comes with might be different methods of grief, and when your happy, different behaviors of euphoria occur. If the following pattern of behaviors follow with that mental state, then it is accurate to say the analogy argument does not only apply to one person as a definition of solipsism but rather that other people behave just as I do, thus, we all have a
“Only Phineas never was afraid, only Phineas never hated anyone. Other people experienced this fearful shock somewhere, this sighting of the enemy, and so began an obsessive labor of defense, began to parry the menace they saw facing them by developing a particular frame of mind.”(Knowles 204) John Knowles, the author of A Separate Peace states this quote to explore how some people develop defense mechanisms in order to protect themselves from any harm they may endure. Gene, the novel’s protagonist feels as though his best friend Phineas is somehow out to get him. However, Finny’s perception of his friend was utterly different from Gene’s perspective. In fact, Finny acts as a foil for Gene throughout the story, carrying a completely different outlook on things. Gene’s savage nature allows him to identify the evil within people when Finny simply acknowledges the positive traits in his friends, disregarding the concept of wickedness as a whole. Through Gene and Finny’s friendship, John Knowles illustrates the significance of how one has the ability to perceive others.
“Left Neglect…is a real neurological syndrome that occurs due to damage to the right hemisphere of the brain, such as might follow a right-hemisphere stroke” (Genova 323). Lisa Genova, author of “Left Neglected”, explores the bewildering neurological disorder of Left Neglect through the eyes of Sarah Nickerson. Sarah is a multi-tasking champion who holds a prestigious position as the vice president of human resources at Berkley Consulting, is a mother of three kids, and a wife to her husband Bob Nickerson, who also holds a prestigious position at another company. Life for Sarah is hectic, fast paced, and constantly moving. If it isn’t something regarding work, then it’s her children, or other priorities that seem to pile up as Sarah moves through out her life. Her fast paced life comes to a sudden halt, as one day she is apart of a severe car accident. Sarah’s next memory is waking up in the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital and learning that she has suffered an injury to her brain that has caused a condition known as Left Neglect, and this is where Sarah’s journey throughout the novel begins.
The problem I hope to expose in this paper is the lack of evidence in The Argument from Analogy for Other Minds supporting that A, a thought or feeling, is the only cause of B. Russell believes that there are other minds because he can see actions in others that are analogous to his own without thinking about them. He believes that all actions are caused by thoughts, but what happens when we have a reaction resulting as an action of something forced upon one’s self? Such as when a doctor hits your patellar tendon with a reflex hammer to test your knee-jerk reflex. Russell does not answer this question. He is only “highly probable” that we are to know other minds exist through his A is the cause of B postulate.
In the essay “Thought” by Louis H. Sullivan, he states that people don’t always need words just to communicate. There are several ways that individuals are able to communicate without words, they can express themselves by gestures and facial features, like explaining themselves to others. Sullivan believes that both thinking and creative thinking are better without words and that the minds is always working; therefore, it does not have time to place words together. In order to think clearly they must use other means of pondering; although, the mind works quickly it will take a long time to write what they are thinking because the mind continues without stopping. When individuals are reading they are not think their own thought exactly but what
Chapter 6 of part I of The Stranger concluded with Meursault’s conscious decision to shoot an Arab because of the physical discomfort the Arab’s knife caused him. The significance of the ending of part I is that it was the first demonstration of Meursault’s awareness of the possible consequences of the act that he committed. This awareness continues into the second part of the novel as he is arrested and trialed. The reason for Meursault’s trial is the murder of the Arab. His insensitivity towards Maman’s death and lack of a social conscientious are factors that contributed to support further investigations, but are not reasons to trial him because they have not ‘harmed’ society on a way that he could be arrested for. For example, if Meursault
Psychological egoism is the view that people are always selfish. When was the last time you did a good deed? Did you do it for its own sake, or for your own? The egoist says that all of us are necessarily self-regarding. I shall argue that this view is incorrect.
Today, modern technology has changed our way of life in many different ways. We spend most of our time staring into our phones and do not realize our surroundings. According to Jean Twenge, the author of “ Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation”, ninety-two percent of teens report going online at least once a day, and fifty-six percent admit they go online several times a day. This may sound unrealistic but why do we spend so much time on social media? In “ Our Minds Can Be Hijacked”, an article by Paul Lewis, Lewis interviews Google, Twitter, and Facebook workers who helped make technology so addictive and demonstrates how we can prevent ourselves from being harmed by it. I believe companies are partially responsible for creating addiction
Throughout the course of day-to-day business life, the business professionals come in contact with quite a sum of ethical dilemmas. There are various ways to handle these ethical dilemmas, but failure to follow the appropriate manner could result in an unethical outcome. The ethical guides related to the book definitely help students develop an ethical character that is sure to stand out for highly ethical companies. In addition, there are companies that test how ethical applicants are before hiring them, this in turn makes getting the job more difficult and costly. However, despite the high cost and difficulty said companies stay firm to ethics, guaranteeing they get top-of-the-line employees who will act in an ethical manner. Ethics is defined
Are minds physical things, or are they nonmaterial? If your beliefs and desires are caused by physical events outside of yourself, how can it be true that you act the way you do of your own free will? Are people genuinely moved by the welfare of others, or is all behavior, in reality, selfish? (Sober 203). These are questions relevant to philosophy of the mind and discussed through a variety of arguments. Two of the most important arguments with this discussion are Cartesian dualism and logical behaviorism, both of which argue the philosophy of the mind in two completely different ways. Robert Lane, a professor at the University of West Georgia, define the two as follows: Cartesian dualism is the theory that the mind and body are two totally different things, capable of existing separately, and logical behaviorism is the theory that our talk about beliefs, desires, and pains is not talk about ghostly or physical inner episodes, but instead about actual and potential patterns of behavior. Understanding of the two arguments is essential to interpret the decision making process; although dualism and behaviorism are prominent arguments for the philosophy of the mind, both have their strengths and weaknesses.
Bertrand Russell expressed his belief on knowing other minds, in an article based primarily around the notion of ‘analogy’, meaning similar to or likeness of. His belief is that, "We are convinced that other people have thoughts and feelings that are qualitatively fairly similar to our own. We are not content to think that we know only the space-time structure of our friends’ minds, or their capacity for initiating causal chains that end in sensations of our own" (Russell 89). Russell speaks of the inner awareness, such as being able to observe the occurrences of such things as remembering, feeling pleasure and feeling pain from within our own minds’. This would then allow us to presume that other beings that have these abilities would then be that of having minds.
I very much enjoyed watching the series Misunderstood Minds. There were a variety of different students with disabilities that caught my attention and inspired me to teach special education. Each child in the series taught me something new about special education.
Russel Kirk was one of the main contributors to American intellectual conservatism. His work of 1953 is considered to be Kirk’s magnum opus. Author begins his book with the core ideas, which, he believes, appear to be essential for conservatism. What must be mentioned, however, is that Kirk does not provides a list of these six rules, which, according to him, arise to be dogmas of Anglo-American conservatism, but, rather, he proposes six characteristics that belong to a true conservative mind.
I have been a firm believer of the anti-Cartesian argument that in order to join together one mind with one body Cartesians and anti-Cartesians are consider vital principles by Strawson, so one must think the mind as something dependent on someone, and not a separate entity altogether, as Descartes would argue.
According to Lisa Zunshine, theory of mind is essential to both verbal communication, and reading fiction. She defines the principle as the ability to explain physical actions through mental phenomena. Through ToM, we are able to discern the thoughts and motives of people that we encounter. For example, when someone is yelling and animated, we can infer they are likely upset. When reading, we also attribute mental states to characters; we question the motives behind their decisions. Zunshine suggests that this is the reason that we enjoy reading fiction. It parallels our interactions in real life.
Ethical egoism can be a well-debated topic about the true intention of an individual when he or she makes an ethical decision. Max Stirner brings up a very intriguing perspective in writing, The Ego and its Own, regarding ethical egoism. After reading his writing some questions are posed. For example, are human beings at the bottom? Following Wiggins and Putnam, can we rise above our egoism and truly be altruistic? And finally, if we are something, do we have the capacity to rise to a level that we can criticize and transcend our nature? These questions try to establish whether or not we are simple humans, bound to our intrinsic nature, or far more intellectually advanced than we allow ourselves to be.