Transcript Class #6 - 4/15/13

Philosophy 1010
Class 4/15/13
Title:
Introduction to Philosophy
Instructor:
Paul Dickey
E-mail Address: [email protected]
Tonight:
Finish Chapter Two Discussion
Midterm Exam
Next Week
Overview & Introduction to Chapter 3
Homework - Read:
3.1, pp. 134-140
3.2, pp. 144-150
3.3 & 3.4 (pp. 153-163)
Chapter 2
On Human Nature:
A Metaphysical Study
What is it to be Human?
What is a Person?
What is a Self? What is a Soul?
What is a Person Worth?
The Traditional Rationalist View
(Aristotle)
• Aristotle (384-322 BC) mostly agreed with
Plato but went on to argue that reason can
discover the truth about man in the natural
world, and how we should act.
• Thus, Aristotle is rejecting Plato’s Allegory of
the Cave, suggesting that Plato’s world of
shadows can be known through reason.
Ah, isn’t this the basic motivation for science?
• For Aristotle, all living things and the natural
world have purpose (telos). The purpose of
man is to control desires and aggression
through reason.
The Traditional Western Religious View
(Judeo-Christian)
• “The purpose of man is to love and serve God.”
(St. Augustine – 354-430 AD)
• Although influenced by Plato, this view asserts
that humans are made in the image of God.
Man has an immaterial and immortal soul and
the ability to love and to know, in the very
manner of God.
• Augustine emphasized that humans have will
and intellect, the ability to choose between
good and evil.
• “The purpose of man is to know God through
reason.” (St. Thomas Aquinas - c. 1225 –1274)
The Traditional Western Religious View
• For Thomas Aquinas, however, one is not
limited in their ability to love and serve God by
differing levels of intelligence or knowledge.
• In his view of Human Nature, note that Love
and Service to God trumps Reason !!!
• Question for the class:
Does this view contradict the previously
asserted suggestion in the class that it is best
to seek truth and wisdom? Or Socrates’ view
that the unexamined life is not worth living?
Would Aquinas agree with you?
The Traditional Western View
The Traditional Western View of Human
Nature is the one most commonly held in our
culture.
Yet different philosophers throughout history
have questioned and rejected every one of
the four tenets with various arguments.
The most radical view is perhaps the Existentialism
of Jean-Paul Sartre -- 1905 – 1980.
• “Existence precedes essence.”
• Humans are radically free. Human nature itself is
determined by a man’s choices. There is no fixed
universal human nature (or soul) prior to the
choices that an individual free man makes.
• Existentialism challenges our basic values of
western civilization that human nature in some
way is “fixed.” God does not exist.
Human, All Too Human
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxbkPCLlXII
The Traditional Western View
• The Prevalent View Regarding the Nature of Man Makes
Four Basic Claims:
1)
That the self is conscious (has
reason) and has a purpose
2)
That the self is distinct from the body,
but somehow is related.
3)
That the self endures through time.
4)
That the self has an independent
existence from other selves
Challenges to the Traditional Rationalist View
Feminism
•
The traditional view seems to be sexist in that it
assumes that reason is male and emotions are
female (e.g. Aristotle & Augustine) By calling for
the subjugation of emotions to reason, does the
traditional view take a gender bias?
•
Some feminist philosophers repudiate the
traditional rationalist view and reject reason as the
basis of human nature. Others agree that reason
is primary and say the view only needs to be
modified to remove gender bias and to
acknowledge that reason is gender neutral.
Is the Rationalist View Racist?
• Aristotle claimed that since barbarians
were less rational than Greeks, it was
justifiable to rule and enslave them
because they were less human.
• Caveat Emptor: Such an
assertion does not logically follow
from Plato.
• Are “less intelligent” people less
human?
Darwinism
• Evolutionary theory claims that random
variations and natural selection make
species evolve. To many, this suggests that
humans are not unique and that there
perhaps is no special purpose to human life.
Charles Darwin – 1809–1882
• Darwin does not himself take a position on
the question whether God exists.
Other Challenges to
the Traditional Rationalist View
•
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) claimed that man
acts only to satisfy his desires. In particular, he
possesses a basic, powerful desire for
aggressiveness and sexual pleasure. Man views
others as objects.
•
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) claimed that the
man’s primary desire was for power over others.
•
Moritz Schlick (1882-1936) believed that man is
able to act only out of self-interest. Schlick
recognized the appearance of unselfish
behavior, but claimed even such behavior
occurred only because of unrecognized selfinterest.
The Traditional Western View
• The Prevalent View Regarding the Nature of Man Makes
Four Basic Claims:
1)
That the self is conscious (has
reason) and has a purpose
2)
That the self is distinct from the
body, but somehow is related.
3)
That the self endures through time.
4)
That the self has an independent
existence from other selves
The Dualist View of Human Nature
•
The Dualist View is an ancient view that can be
traced back to Plato and the Traditional Rationalist
View of Human Nature.
•
A developed, systematic view of Dualism was best
expressed by Rene Descartes (1596-1650).
•
Descartes argues that he can imagine his self
without a body, thus the self is not the body. We
cannot think of the self without thought which is
immaterial. Thus, the mind and body must be
distinct.
•
Descartes further argues that the mind or “soul” is
the essential form of the self and could exist without
the body.
•
I think, therefore I am.
The Mind-Body Problem
•
So how can the mind as a non-physical entity cause
the physical body to act and how can the physical
body cause changes in the state of the mind?
•
Can the mind add energy or force to the physical
world?
But that is exactly what seems to happen when I
decide to move my hand and then move it.
•
How can a physical body alter a state of
consciousness or thought?
But that is exactly what seems to happen when a fly
buzzes near my head and I become annoyed.
Cartesian Dualism on the Mind-Body Problem
•
Descartes suggested that the mind/body
interacts through the pineal gland, a small
gland near the brain by being so small that
an immaterial mind could move it.
•
But the problem still seems to remain! No
matter how small a physical object is, it is of
course still a physical object.
Responses to Cartesian Dualism
•
Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716) denied that the
mind and body actually do interact. They only
appear to do so.
•
Leibniz argued that the mind and the body
operate in parallel universes like synchronized
clocks.
•
Nicholas Malebranche (1683-1715) argued that
such a synchronism could not occur by
coincidence. Only by the constant act of God
could the two worlds be kept parallel.
Descartes & The Scientific Revolution
In 1636, a Hobbes travels to Italy where he may
have met with Galileo. With the influence of Galileo,
Hobbes develops his social philosophy on principles
of geometry and natural science.
Galileo Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642),
was an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer,
and philosopher who played a major role in the
Scientific Revolution. Galileo has been called the
"father of modern observational astronomy", the "father
of modern physics", the "father of science", and "the
Father of Modern Science“
Galileo proposes that physics should be a “new
science” based on methods of observation not just on
the methods of reason.
Materialism
•
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) rejects Cartesian
dualism claiming that Descartes Mind/Body
problem itself refutes dualism.
•
Since mind and body cannot interact, they
cannot both exist within human nature.
•
There can only be one realm of human nature
and that is the material world.
•
All human activities, including the mental, can
be explained on the paradigm of a machine.
Materialism
•
Hobbes was reductionist in that he believed that one
kind of purported reality (the mind) could be understood
entirely in terms of another (matter).
•
New scientific techniques of observation and
measurement being used by Galileo, Kepler, and
Copernicus were making giant strides in understanding
the universe.
•
The spirit of his century suggested to Hobbes that all
reality would be explained in time in terms only of the
observable and the measurable.
•
Hobbes himself was unable to explain any mental
processes in terms of the physical.
•
Perhaps motivating Hobbes’ view was basically his
passionate faith in the advancement of science at the
time.
The Traditional Western View
• The Prevalent View Regarding the Nature of Man Makes
Four Basic Claims:
1)
That the self is conscious and has a purpose
2)
That the self is distinct from the body, but somehow is
related.
3)
That the self endures through time.
4)
That the self has an independent existence from other
selves
Is There An Enduring Self?
•
Descartes argues that the enduring self is the soul, an
enduring immaterial being or existence.
•
John Locke (1632-1704) says that the enduring self is
a based only on our having continuous memory.
•
Buddhism asserts that nothing in the universe,
particularly the self, remains the same from one
moment to the next.
•
David Hume (1711-1776) also denies that there is an
enduring self. He argues that only what we perceive
exists and that we never perceive an enduring self, only
a constant flow of perceptions.
The Traditional Western View
• The Prevalent View Regarding the Nature of Man Makes
Four Basic Claims:
1)
That the self is conscious and has a purpose
2)
That the self is distinct from the body, but somehow is
related.
3)
That the self endures through time.
4)
That the self has an independent
existence from other selves
Is the Self Independent or Relational?
•
Descartes argues that the self exists independently of
others and the independent self can judge the truth
about what is.
•
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) suggests that the self is
the ability to choose independently of others, and not
being determined by conforming to others.
Georg W.F. Hegel (1770-1831) proposes that the self
is relational. A person is only free and independent if
others recognize him or her to be so.
•
Charles Taylor (1931- ) argues that we depend on
others for the very definition of what our real self is.
Break!