Sept 12th

Epistemology - The photoshopped photograph below shows a woman who apparently thinks that the moon is smaller than an elephant. Explain how she can be correct if she takes a naive realist point of view.

Morality - For more on Trolley problems follow this link

Personhood - This page uses Commander Data from Star Trek to explore the idea of personhood. Is Data a person?

Dualism - This page raises some important ideas relating to substance dualism.

Sept 19th

Epistemology - Naive Realism states that there are two things involved in interacting with an object, the perceiver and the object.

Representative realism states that there are three things, the perceiver, the perception and (possibly) the object.

Why does the fact that there is a second stage in the process cast doubt on the existence of the object?

Pleasure - We decided that pleasure was a reasonable basis for a system of morality. Does this make us hedonists in the bad sense of that world? Is it possible to seek pleasure and be concerned for others at the same time. These notes might help you to decide.

Dualism - One of Descartes arguments for the difference between mind and body is the argument from indivisibility. This states that 'the body, by its very nature, is something divisible' whereas the mind is indivisible. Descartes says 'insofar as I am only a thing that thinks, I cannot distinguish any parts in me . . . Although the whole mind seems to be united to the whole body, nevertheless, were a foot or an arm or any other bodily part amputated, I know that nothing would be taken away from the mind'. As the mind and the body thus have different properties they must have different substances. What are the problems with this viewpoint?

September 26

The Matrix and dualism - There is a very full discussion of the philosophical problems raised by this film here. Look in particular at the section headed Ghosts in the Machine: The Matrix as the Cartesian Evil Demon. There are also some interesting links and references at the bottom of the page that you may wish to follow up.

The Selfish Gene - There is a good Wikipedia article on this here. There is a very full discussion of biological altruism here. The section on But is it ‘Real’ Altruism? is very useful. For more on ideas about pleasure and pain read this article on Jeremy Bentham

Please send any comments about this blog or the lessons to the usual e-mail address. I will post them if they are relevant or enlightening or amusing.

Massive Attack examine dualism

Like a soul without a mind
In a body without a heart
I'm missing every part

Unfinished Sympathy