Philosophy of Mind - Assignment Example

?Platonic dualism provides human experience with moral value, Cartesian dualism supplies humans with confidence. Affirm or deny this proposition. Dualism, for both Plato and Rene Descartes, implied that the mind and the body would be different and distinct entities. Both these thinkers identified the mind with the soul. This theory, thus, had implications for the metaphysical nature of the human as well. Plato’s theory of dualism was based on his theory of idealism, which propounded that every ‘thing’ on earth was but an imitation of an idea that was present in heaven. The ‘thing’ that was there on earth was thus, not a real one, since it was a mere shadow that could not match up to the real idea of the thing. The soul, Plato believed, was immortal and heavenly, unlike the body, which would be discarded during death. The mind and the body, thus was split into two entities within the same human being. The mind, Plato felt, would return to its earlier form as soon as it left the corporeal frame, since the knowledge of its essence was present in itself and the soul had to only recollect this knowledge that was independent of the body (Platonic). The mind is thus given a superior position that would enable the person to aspire to attain a greater moral stature that would correspond with the nature of the soul. There are certain differences to the theory of dualism that Rene Descartes brings in. In Descartes’ theory of dualism, there is, like in Plato, a distinction between the mind and the body. Like Plato, he also identifies the mind with the soul. The essence of the human soul, Descartes held, was its ability to think and reason. The soul thus undergoes certain changes as a result of thought, unlike in the case of the theory of Plato where the soul would return to its former state following death. The ability of the soul to change itself and improve itself as a result of its thought is something that should inspire one, since the destiny of a person would be in his or her own hands (Cartesian). As a result of this, there is a certain amount of confidence that this theory imparts to the people who believe in it. An interaction of the body and the soul is possible in the Cartesian framework that enables the person to create positive changes in the environment and thus supply himself or herself with more confidence. Works Cited “Cartesian Dualism”. all about philosophy. Accessed on 30th December, 2011 “Platonic dualism”. Philosophy Online. Accessed on 29th December, 2011 Consciousness in Human Behavior- Ryle and Nagel Thomas Nagel’s understanding of the concept of consciousness is a complex one that involves an understanding of the mind-body split that challenges Cartesian models. By invoking the model of the bat, Nagel states that the mind of a person can never be understood by another entirely since the experience of that person would be entirely different and such an understanding would require a substitution of one’s consciousness with that of the other person. This too, would fail to achieve the purpose, since the examined consciousness would have changed. The fluidity of the consciousness is what forms the basis of this theory that sheds light also on the mind-body split and critiques the reductionist views regarding it. The analogy of the bat is meant to make the impossibility of understanding the consciousness of another person. Gilbert Ryle gives an alternate understanding of the human consciousness. He reawakened the question of the relationship between the mind and the body by rejecting the theory of dualism. He believed that the mental and the physical could not be categorized as two separate categories and such a separation was according to him, a “category mistake” on the part of Descartes (LaFave). He believed that the intention that a person had could be formulated in different terms through turning the aspects of a person’s behavior and his or her behavioral actions into a set of conditionals. This would then imply the possibility of deciphering the consciousness of a particular person. This belief that Ryle held came into conflict with the views that came to be held by Nagel. This can be seen in what they say in their writings. “It [human experience] is not analyzable in terms of the causal roles of experiences in relation to typical human behavior….” (Nagel, 436) What Ryle means to say in this statement of his is related to the fixity that he ascribes to the consciousness at a certain point of time, a concept that is looked upon by Nagel with great skepticism because of the ideas of fluidity and inexplicability that he attributed to human consciousness. Works Cited LaFave, Sandy. “Roadmap to Philosophy of Mind”. West Valley College Created on 1st November, 2011 Accessed on 30th December, 2011 Nagel, Thomas. “What is it like to be a Bat”. The Philosophical Review, Vol. 83, No. 4 (Oct., 1974), pp. 435-450. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2183914 Accessed on 29th December, 2011 Morton, Peter A., A Historical Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind: Readings With Commentary. Ontario: Broadview Press, 2010. P 197 A Definition of Ontology using the Apologetic arguments of St. Anselm and Blaise Pascal The definition of ‘ontology’ is a tricky one to formulate. This is because it is difficult to be free of any bias while formulating its definition. St. Anselm and Blaise Pascal were instrumental in the growth of the field of ontology that sought to establish the existence of God, based on the Christian faith that believed in the status of Jesus as the god in a monotheistic arrangement. Both Pascal and Anselm do so using a series of arguments that were apologetic in nature. Their arguments centered on the use or disuse of reason as a means of establishing the existence of God. While Anselm advocated the use of reason to establish the existence of God, Pascal advocated the employment of a middle path that would engage faith and reason together, to establish God’s existence. Pascal’s arguments were geared towards establishing Jesus as the God that actually existed. The arguments of Pascal were influenced by Christian faith that enjoined upon him to believe and then seek reasons rather than formulate his arguments in the opposite manner, which is how an argument that employs reason would be structured. The arguments that Pascal puts forward in the defense of a form of an argument that does not employ reason are based on his belief that man is not in complete control of that he sees in the cosmos. In his work, belief is not made subordinate to reason (Fernandes). This is the case with the work of St. Anselm too as their arguments are made with the belief that man would not be able to understand his position in the cosmos and in relation to the other beings in the universe, including God, using reason alone (Sadler). The arguments that are forwarded by these philosophers seek to understand the nature of man’s existence on the earth and seek to define his ontological presence on the earth through a Christian perspective. Their definition of ontology would thus be an understanding of the existence and being of man and his soul on earth in relation to his creator, Jesus. Secular understandings of ontology would differ from this definition and would involve an understanding of man in relation to his own position in the universe and to other beings. Works Cited Sadler, Greg. “St. Anselm of Canterbury (1033—1109)”. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy www.iep.utm.edu/anselm/ Created on 20th October, 2006. Accessed on 29th December, 2011. Fernandes, Phil. “The Apologetic Methodology of Blaise Pascal”. Leadership U. www.leaderu.com/apologetics/pascalmethodology.html Created on 27th October, 2004. Accessed on 29th December, 2011. Epistemology and Human Thought according to Immanuel Kant and David Hume Kant’s ideas regarding human knowledge differed significantly with that of David Hume’s. There were certain kinds of knowledge that Kant considered to be possible that did not correspond with that of Hume’s conception of knowledge. Kant believed that there are forms of knowledge that are outside the scope of experience as well. Independent of experience is the knowledge that he considered to be a priori knowledge. There is another kind of knowledge that he considers to be the result of worldly experience. There is however, also another form of knowledge that exists that is synthetic, but at the same time, it is also not a priori. This was a significant departure from the theories of Hume who placed great emphasis on the value of experience in the shaping of a person’s knowledge. Hume considered epistemology to be the result of great work and labor. He felt that there would be certain areas of study that would have to be explored with great care and labor and only then would it be possible to extract any knowledge from these areas. Hume also considered the theories of causality to be true and one act necessarily followed from the other in Hume’s scheme of things. Thus, there were things that were categorically outside the sphere of human control, according to the philosophy of Hume (Morris). This was so in the case of Kant as well; however, Kant also placed a great amount of emphasis on human autonomy, which he felt was the outcome of the accumulation of knowledge in the sphere of philosophy. Unlike Hume’s conceptions of the metaphysical, which Kant felt were reductionist and based on experience alone, Kant felt that it was possible to bring even god within the ambit of reason and thus to the level of human understanding as was not considered possible till then (Guyer). Kant is thus, rightly considered to be the greatest philosopher of the Enlightenment. Epistemology, according to the views of both these philosophers would then mean an understanding of the ways and means in which knowledge can be acquired and the manner in which this knowledge can be made accessible to the human understanding. Works Cited Guyer, Paul (1998, 2004). “Kant, Immanuel”. In E. Craig (Ed.), Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. London: Routledge. Morris, William Edward. “David Hume”. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Created on 15th May, 2009. Accessed on 30th December, 2011. Read More