The question for this week that is posed is what, if anything, can philosophy contribute to the understanding of religion. Religious conviction, in general, is fascinating because it's a defense of a set of beliefs that most people accept as true or real from a young, impressionable age. For many people they were never presented with a choice of beliefs or a comparable amount of belief sets from which to choose (if any). Faith plays an enormous role here and it is hard to separate out faith from the topic of religious conviction for that very reason.
Many people are born into the religions they then spend their life defending and believing. People are taught what their parents believe(d) the majority of the time. There is no choice offered in many cases (note that I am making these statements in a very general and broad sense since there are obviously always exceptions). Do people stop to question later in life 'why do I actually believe these things as fact?', 'what if what I believe is not a solid fact?' or 'what if I was born in a totally different place in a different set of circumstances?' . If a person raised here in America as a Catholic were to happen to have been born in the Middle East or the Far East, for example, the likelihood that they would have grown up believing a totally different set of beliefs in a different religion is a very real one.
It's hard for me to understand how people can live their lives accepting things as total fact without evidence or without active questioning or even without considering that they may have been taught to accept something from birth that may not necessarily be true. I found the Blackboard posts for this week fascinating in that regard. Many people casually mentioned that they were raised in certain religions and now have a solid belief in a god and those beliefs of that religion and therefore in regards to the chapter we read and the arguments we had to consider they found it hard to register that things could have been different for them growing up or that what they were taught from youth could possibly not be entirely true or that one can question religion and belief(s).
The question and idea of faith is really a hard thing for me to stomach. I take a very pragmatic view of life and therefore, for me, it's important to always seek and learn and prove or disprove. I don't ever blindly accept things. For me, questioning and curiosity are some of the wonders of our species. To deny oneself the ability to question and view things objectively purely based on a notion that one should just believe and accept things as they are is counter-productive and self-limiting. It stunts progressive thought and allows for a certain complacency that blocks advances in many areas.
In my study of religions over the years, I have found it interesting that many religions (especially the Judeo-Christian-Islamic set) have parables or tenets that dissuade people from actively questioning. The concept of faith is one that exists to cushion this lack of questioning. In Christianity, for example, the Adam/Eve/serpent story is one that exists to warn people that questioning and curiosity is a fatal mistake. This particular parable is used to discourage free thinking and inquiry while also having the added benefit of keeping those who believe in line and in defense of their religious beliefs since fear becomes a huge motivator. People don't want to offend or ruin their relationship with their god figure and thus take these stories/tenets to heart. So, I can understand why people who are brought up with certain ideologies err on the side of faith since their religious background may really hammer in the acceptance of things as they are in that particular set of religious beliefs.
I think that Philosophy is interesting when it comes to this/these conundrum(s). In the case of Hume's arguments, I think something like this is good in that it allows people to question and ponder these enormous quandaries. Philosophy can be useful in getting people to begin the path to enlightening themselves (truly) that the easiest truths provided may not always be true in and of themselves. Philosophy can help people to understand the possible whys involved with why certain ideologies are so attractive while others are harder for people to grasp and maybe in this way Philosophy does a great service to those actively seeking to open their minds.
However, it's not a simple process. Changing centuries of religious 'programming' (for lack of a better word here) and getting people to adopt the desire to question and look at things more objectively, which ultimately means getting people to go beyond the fear factor present in their religious ideologies is a huge endeavor and enormously difficult because the notion of faith is the very antithesis of reason.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Friday, March 13, 2009
Programming
I found this week's reading extremely interesting. I was left with a lot of questions about what the future holds in terms of artificial intelligence. That said, I have always found it easy to see the comparisons between the physiology and anatomy of our bodies and brains to the structure and functions of computers. Taking anatomy and physiology I and II has really opened my eyes to the complex functions of our bodies and minds and I have found it intriguing that many professors even teach brain and cellular function by making analogies to computer processes. In this day and age, many people are able to make the connection so the analogy works well.
Even just yesterday I remarked to someone that I found the process of memory transfer fascinating. I had a test I was studying for this week and since sleeping helps transfer knowledge from short term memory to long term memory, I was thinking about that upon waking up from a deep sleep after studying the night before. Information I had been shaky with was all of a sudden clear to me after a long night's sleep and after remarking how this was a case for sleep and a case against cramming for tests or pulling all nighters he told me that this is very much like what computers do to write information to long term memory on hard drives. I was struck with yet another computer/brain function analogy that made a lot of sense.
In terms of programming, I strongly feel humans are programmed by society in so many ways and most people live their lives thinking they are making complex decisions based on free will when they are really just doing what they have been programmed to do. We are born and form our first attachment with the caretaker who cares for us in our first year of life. If we are lucky enough to have them care for us throughout childhood, this is our second programmer. The first would be our genes which are in and of themselves code for our personality and what makes us 'tick'.
Our caretakers can begin our programming with simple things, programming us to trust but not trust too much, programming us to eat correctly, tie our shoes, the list is endless really. However, those caretakers were influenced by their environments and by their caretakers and their contacts. Their influences are in the form of religion, their education, their outlook on life shaped by both or by even by other influences like the media. So, those influences shape and color how they then program us and shape our personality. Sure, we can and may grow up and choose to deviate from their programming but that base, the actual programming, can't be disputed.
The media plays a very, very large role in this as well as our caretakers. Growing up watching the television, we are bombarded with images of the perfect family, the perfect job, the perfect life, material items to desire, celebrities to aspire to be like or to hate, views about others that make us feel like we belong to certain groups or differentiate us from others in our quest to try to be different and unique. Many people come out of their childhoods programmed to want to get married, have children and have a house for example. In America, the phrase, 'The American Dream' is thrown around as something to aspire to. They are programmed maybe by their religious influences to feel strongly about different things or people. Maybe they watched many sitcoms and over time they have come to believe that life is only about the pursuit of such things which are found in the sitcoms they grew up 'identifying' with. Yet they never question it. It, the programming, is so ingrained that to them, it just seems like they are making a conscious decision to go for such things. They then program their children in the same way and the process repeats itself over and over again.
We have an entire industry that feeds off this programming, the advertising and marketing industry. It's an industry that goes so far as to even put subliminal messages in commercials just to hook young children into desiring a product that they will then beg their parents for.
What does this say about us as humans? It's lofty to think we are different than computers and to think that we completely act and operate out of nothing but free will but it's not really the case that we act completely out of free will (it's probably a lot less than we may think) and it's no wonder (and in many ways awesome) that we have created computers to mimic the programming process on such a technical level.
We are so easy to program! Even our genetic coding goes so far as to inherently program us in ways that we can't yet get around. Perhaps the more advanced we get the more programmed we become as a species. Maybe our likeness to artificial intelligence is a lot more than we think.
Even just yesterday I remarked to someone that I found the process of memory transfer fascinating. I had a test I was studying for this week and since sleeping helps transfer knowledge from short term memory to long term memory, I was thinking about that upon waking up from a deep sleep after studying the night before. Information I had been shaky with was all of a sudden clear to me after a long night's sleep and after remarking how this was a case for sleep and a case against cramming for tests or pulling all nighters he told me that this is very much like what computers do to write information to long term memory on hard drives. I was struck with yet another computer/brain function analogy that made a lot of sense.
In terms of programming, I strongly feel humans are programmed by society in so many ways and most people live their lives thinking they are making complex decisions based on free will when they are really just doing what they have been programmed to do. We are born and form our first attachment with the caretaker who cares for us in our first year of life. If we are lucky enough to have them care for us throughout childhood, this is our second programmer. The first would be our genes which are in and of themselves code for our personality and what makes us 'tick'.
Our caretakers can begin our programming with simple things, programming us to trust but not trust too much, programming us to eat correctly, tie our shoes, the list is endless really. However, those caretakers were influenced by their environments and by their caretakers and their contacts. Their influences are in the form of religion, their education, their outlook on life shaped by both or by even by other influences like the media. So, those influences shape and color how they then program us and shape our personality. Sure, we can and may grow up and choose to deviate from their programming but that base, the actual programming, can't be disputed.
The media plays a very, very large role in this as well as our caretakers. Growing up watching the television, we are bombarded with images of the perfect family, the perfect job, the perfect life, material items to desire, celebrities to aspire to be like or to hate, views about others that make us feel like we belong to certain groups or differentiate us from others in our quest to try to be different and unique. Many people come out of their childhoods programmed to want to get married, have children and have a house for example. In America, the phrase, 'The American Dream' is thrown around as something to aspire to. They are programmed maybe by their religious influences to feel strongly about different things or people. Maybe they watched many sitcoms and over time they have come to believe that life is only about the pursuit of such things which are found in the sitcoms they grew up 'identifying' with. Yet they never question it. It, the programming, is so ingrained that to them, it just seems like they are making a conscious decision to go for such things. They then program their children in the same way and the process repeats itself over and over again.
We have an entire industry that feeds off this programming, the advertising and marketing industry. It's an industry that goes so far as to even put subliminal messages in commercials just to hook young children into desiring a product that they will then beg their parents for.
What does this say about us as humans? It's lofty to think we are different than computers and to think that we completely act and operate out of nothing but free will but it's not really the case that we act completely out of free will (it's probably a lot less than we may think) and it's no wonder (and in many ways awesome) that we have created computers to mimic the programming process on such a technical level.
We are so easy to program! Even our genetic coding goes so far as to inherently program us in ways that we can't yet get around. Perhaps the more advanced we get the more programmed we become as a species. Maybe our likeness to artificial intelligence is a lot more than we think.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
A Case For Physicalism
I very much identify with physicalism and eliminativism interests me immensely. I suspect I will greatly enjoy this coming week's reading on functionalism as well.
The blog question was, " If you agree with physicalism, how do you explain the fact that our mental life seems to be like nothing else in the physical world"
This seems like a very loaded and somewhat difficult question to answer in such a context. To compare the inner workings of a complex system such as our brain which we don't even fully understand yet since we don't have perfect visibility and reflection into our own brain inner workings with observed phenomena that we only understand at surface level just doesn't seem even plausible. If we had such knowledge, we would completely understand how we process not just physical stimuli but how our brain processes complex concepts such as acquisition of knowledge and formation of thoughts. For example, look at how we do brain scans. We essentially look at which areas light up in the brain. This tells us nothing about what the individual synapses are doing or even what the individual brain cells are doing. Our understanding and application of our limited understanding of our brains is downright primitive. Sure, we have come a long, long way in the past 50 years or so but we have quite a ways to go.
Here is a better example. Let's say I see an animal and it is something I have never seen before and it behaves in a way I have never seen before either. I can make the conclusion that nothing else is like this because in my limited knowledge I never observed such a thing/being. Maybe it is a cheetah running at 70 mph. However, there are many other things that run at various different speeds but are different because of their physical makeups, evolution, basic structure Conceptually, they are doing the same exact thing though. It's a question of degree. We realize our brains are complex and sophisticated but that doesn't make it 'magical'. How do we know our consciousness is in fact unique? We don't. We aren't even at the level of understanding required for our own species to make such a statement nevermind other animal species. This also discounts non-human life/consciousness. This limits the data set to things we have observed which can and will be incomplete. Not only is it limited in the size of the data set we currently have but our understanding is limited as well. This greatly discounts unobserved phenomena. What if there are millions of intelligent species out there that we don't yet know about?
The initial question is almost reminiscent of the 'black swan theory' . It goes: "One notices a white swan. From this one can conclude: At least one swan is white. From this, one may wish to conjecture: All swans are white. But it is impractical to observe all the swans in the world to verify that they are all white. Even so, the statement all swans are white is testable by being falsifiable. For, if in testing many swans, the researcher finds a single black swan, then the statement all swans are white would be falsified by the counterexample of the single black swan." (taken from the Wikipedia article on Falsifiability).
We can similarly assume that since our consciousness seems unique that it must therefore be unique but it is only unique because our scope of understanding is limited and our observations are limited as well. Because we think it is unique based on our limited understanding and observation does not make it ultimately unique. It's the fallacy of hasty generalization where a generalization is made based on insufficent evidence. How can we possibly even conclude that the concept of human consciousness as it is understood (which really isn't understood very well) is special and unique?
That said, I do think that over time as more strides are made in understanding the brain and phenomena that right now seems mystifying, the case for physicalism will be even stronger.
The blog question was, " If you agree with physicalism, how do you explain the fact that our mental life seems to be like nothing else in the physical world"
This seems like a very loaded and somewhat difficult question to answer in such a context. To compare the inner workings of a complex system such as our brain which we don't even fully understand yet since we don't have perfect visibility and reflection into our own brain inner workings with observed phenomena that we only understand at surface level just doesn't seem even plausible. If we had such knowledge, we would completely understand how we process not just physical stimuli but how our brain processes complex concepts such as acquisition of knowledge and formation of thoughts. For example, look at how we do brain scans. We essentially look at which areas light up in the brain. This tells us nothing about what the individual synapses are doing or even what the individual brain cells are doing. Our understanding and application of our limited understanding of our brains is downright primitive. Sure, we have come a long, long way in the past 50 years or so but we have quite a ways to go.
Here is a better example. Let's say I see an animal and it is something I have never seen before and it behaves in a way I have never seen before either. I can make the conclusion that nothing else is like this because in my limited knowledge I never observed such a thing/being. Maybe it is a cheetah running at 70 mph. However, there are many other things that run at various different speeds but are different because of their physical makeups, evolution, basic structure Conceptually, they are doing the same exact thing though. It's a question of degree. We realize our brains are complex and sophisticated but that doesn't make it 'magical'. How do we know our consciousness is in fact unique? We don't. We aren't even at the level of understanding required for our own species to make such a statement nevermind other animal species. This also discounts non-human life/consciousness. This limits the data set to things we have observed which can and will be incomplete. Not only is it limited in the size of the data set we currently have but our understanding is limited as well. This greatly discounts unobserved phenomena. What if there are millions of intelligent species out there that we don't yet know about?
The initial question is almost reminiscent of the 'black swan theory' . It goes: "One notices a white swan. From this one can conclude: At least one swan is white. From this, one may wish to conjecture: All swans are white. But it is impractical to observe all the swans in the world to verify that they are all white. Even so, the statement all swans are white is testable by being falsifiable. For, if in testing many swans, the researcher finds a single black swan, then the statement all swans are white would be falsified by the counterexample of the single black swan." (taken from the Wikipedia article on Falsifiability).
We can similarly assume that since our consciousness seems unique that it must therefore be unique but it is only unique because our scope of understanding is limited and our observations are limited as well. Because we think it is unique based on our limited understanding and observation does not make it ultimately unique. It's the fallacy of hasty generalization where a generalization is made based on insufficent evidence. How can we possibly even conclude that the concept of human consciousness as it is understood (which really isn't understood very well) is special and unique?
That said, I do think that over time as more strides are made in understanding the brain and phenomena that right now seems mystifying, the case for physicalism will be even stronger.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Knowledge
This is an extremely complex blog assignment that I have struggled with formulating a response to for the past several days. I have been keenly interested in gender feminism for quite some time as I feel that the concept of gender and gender roles in society(ies) to some extent shapes and molds acquisition of knowledge and output. I also feel that gender and gender roles may be holding back many aspects of our society in the same way that the flawed concept of race is holding back society from overall progress and enlightenment in the sense that without the acceptance that our society and many societies are shaped by such flawed principles we stunt our progress in many fields slowing down personal growth and societal growth.
In terms of acquisition of knowledge, I do to some extent feel that knowledge is partially detached and so I tend to side with pramatist and feminist theory (which feminist theory is up for debate of course). However, I also identified strongly with Dewey. I greatly enjoyed doing some side research on John Dewey since I appreciate his approach and thoughts on acquisition of knowledge as I agree that the scientific method can further human good.
Does this mean that I think that knowledge is therefore something that must be tested to come up with a solid base? Yes. I think those seeking a solid base and some form of truth must actively seek to find ways to prove their truths to be true. How do we acquire knowledge? That's a little tougher to quantify and while I feel the readings that we did on epistemology covered a great deal I am left with even more questions regarding knowledge acquisition!
In the same way that we are evolving, I think that knowledge and the acquisition of knowledge is an evolving process as well. The way we acquire knowledge is different than the way our ancestors acquired knowledge. Perhaps it can or has been theorized that there has been an evolution from acquiring knowledge via our senses to something a bit more detached due to the advances of our environment. Environment may play a role in how our brains function and our brains may certainly be more complex than those of our ancestors. This is why I think it's so difficult to pinpoint what knowledge really is. How do you pinpoint and put your finger on something that is constantly changing?
In terms of acquisition of knowledge, I do to some extent feel that knowledge is partially detached and so I tend to side with pramatist and feminist theory (which feminist theory is up for debate of course). However, I also identified strongly with Dewey. I greatly enjoyed doing some side research on John Dewey since I appreciate his approach and thoughts on acquisition of knowledge as I agree that the scientific method can further human good.
Does this mean that I think that knowledge is therefore something that must be tested to come up with a solid base? Yes. I think those seeking a solid base and some form of truth must actively seek to find ways to prove their truths to be true. How do we acquire knowledge? That's a little tougher to quantify and while I feel the readings that we did on epistemology covered a great deal I am left with even more questions regarding knowledge acquisition!
In the same way that we are evolving, I think that knowledge and the acquisition of knowledge is an evolving process as well. The way we acquire knowledge is different than the way our ancestors acquired knowledge. Perhaps it can or has been theorized that there has been an evolution from acquiring knowledge via our senses to something a bit more detached due to the advances of our environment. Environment may play a role in how our brains function and our brains may certainly be more complex than those of our ancestors. This is why I think it's so difficult to pinpoint what knowledge really is. How do you pinpoint and put your finger on something that is constantly changing?
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