On Personal Identity: The issue of personal identity and its determents has been always an issue of concern for a lot of philosophers. John Locke was one of the philosophers who were against the Cartesian theory that soul accounts for personal identity. He stated that if the soul is the determinant of personal identity then what if two people share the same soul‚ and wondered if in this case they will be the same person. Locke used the example of Caster and Pollux who share the same soul to
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Report skepticism is exactly as it sounds; can we trust the data we are receiving for the experiment? We can gather all the data in the world and analyze it for years but if you cannot trust the data itself none of the information we have gathered matters. Two distinct subsects of report skepticism exist and they are known as under-determination and circularity. Under-determination is when the data you have collected does not have any significant evidence between two possibilities. With external
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true. The purpose of Plato’s Allegory of the cave was to persuade readers that just because you sense (see‚ hear‚ smell‚ taste) something doesn’t mean that’s the thing you are sensing. This idea of skepticism was also supported by Empiricus‚ but unlike Plato‚ Empiricus is more radical in his skepticism. He believes all judgment must be suspended to pursue
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Darrell Cosden Introduction to Philosophy PHL260 Section 2 Descartes Skepticism and the Matrix March 21‚ 2012 1197 Words Reality is something that has been debated among philosophers for centuries. Rene Descartes is one of these philosophers who has come up with a unique way of understanding reality. Descartes in Meditations on First Philosophy argues his method of doubt about the idea of skepticism and this is reflected in the Matrix when Neo chooses the red pill over the
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In “skepticism content externalism” by Brueckener section 2‚ the author makes multiple statements related to a vat brain. The author is trying to show multiple possibilities to a fundamental question. The fundamental question is‚ are we in a machine recreating and controlling our experiences‚ or are we in a real world just like this one that we describe as living and experiencing. The basic statements are broken down into the consideration of objects. How can meaning and feeling be attached to an
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There is a type of cynicism that surrounds skepticism where skepticism is tied to a wide range of possibilities; sometimes leading to contradictions. The idea that the world is dependent on individual and collective thought leads to a lot of speculation to the brain’s limits and how to actively reason one’s way out of it. Rinhard’s goal is to convince an external world skeptic by understanding their mode of thought and to deny a skeptic’s conclusion to belief. Rinard does provide a plausible instance
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Philosophy Exam 2 4/13/12 Topic #2 Many examples of theoretical arguments for God’s existence start from the fact of ethical normativity. Human beings are aware of actions as being right and wrong‚ obligatory and forbidden. Such awareness carries with it the thought that they are bound to do some things and bound to avoid doing others. Moral qualities have a binding attached to them shown in the force of the moral “ought” and the moral “must”. If I make a promise‚ the promise creates an
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healthy‚ and perhaps can make an impact to the world is awesome. Yet‚ there are people in the world who don’t want living humans. What has this world gone to? According to abortion is the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy‚ according to John C. Willke most often performed during the first 28 weeks of pregnancy. As abortion is common in the U.S in other countries there are rules that restrict killing of innocent humans. I don’t think our country has acknowledged the fact that every human
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Skepticism About Other Minds One of the core problems of skepticism is that of the existence of other minds. Do other minds exist and‚ if so‚ how do we know this? I posit that not only can we not understand other minds‚ but that other minds do not exist in the first place. This argument rests on the entertainment of several key presumptions. First‚ that we surely know our own minds‚ thoughts‚ and experiences. For example‚ I know when I am in pain‚ I know when I feel hungry‚ and I know when I feel
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The renowned philospoher Honoré de Balzac once suggested in his 1831 publication that; “When law becomes despotic‚ morals are relaxed‚ and vice versa”[1]. By all means‚ this certainly is a controversial statement‚ albeit does Balzac have a valid point to uphold? One might question; “What precicely is the concept of morality?”. George P. Fletcher claims that virtually all Indo-European languages have developed a concept of “morality” based on the Latin root mores and a concept of “ethics” from the
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