Unit 5 - Materialism Lecture

Question 1

Clockwork universe

Answer 1

The role of god in creating life

God built the clock and it runs on its own

Question 2

How does consciousness come about

Answer 2

It’s the result of material processes: neurons, APs, etc

Question 3

What are humans made of?

Answer 3

Matter and nothing else

Question 4

Epiphenomenalism

Answer 4

Mental events are caused by physical events in the brain, but have no effects upon any physical events

Question 5

Associationism

Answer 5

Mental life is an association of ideas

How external ideas become organized

Question 6

Language

Answer 6

Verbal mental notes

Thinking and reasoning tools

Question 7

Insignificant sounds

Answer 7

Sloppily used words

1. Undefined terms (eg. God); meaningless because undefined
2. Contradictions
3. Inconstant names (eg. free society and free cake)
4. Metaphors

Question 8

Logical positivists

Answer 8

Philosophy of science
How to use words more effectively
Created a special rhetoric form for science: Operational Definition

Question 9

Thomas Aquinas

Answer 9

13th c philosopher - age of faith
Last to try to make a systematic description of all human knowledge
Bible/theology and everything else = sci and non sci

Question 10

How did Aquinas reconcile science and non-science?

Answer 10

Both are based on truth

Unitary and could not be contradictory

Question 11

Martin Luther

Answer 11

1517 - Wittenberg
95 theses
Church was selling indulgences, Luther vehemently disagreed
Church shd mediate rltnshp with god

Question 12

Descartes

Answer 12

Early 17th c France
Humans as machines and dualism
Pineal gland as the connection between mind and body

Question 13

Euclidean rationalism

Answer 13

Ancient Greek geometer

Created complex system of geometry from 4 rules

Question 14

Logic

Answer 14

Arithmetic applied to words

Question 15

Free will

Answer 15

Absurd

It is a sequence of endeavors with will as a last step, so it is never free

Question 16

Natural and acquired wit

Answer 16

Natural - born with it (fluid)

Acquired - learning and how you apply it (crystallized)

Question 17

What is the basic human motive?

Answer 17

Power
(probably not actually the only motive)
No spiritual satisfaction, rather only human wants

Question 18

Power

Answer 18

The ability to acquire things
You have to take what you want
And humans only look out for themselves - all against all

Question 19

Hobbes’ view of life

Answer 19

Nasty
Brutish
Solitary
Poor
Short

Question 20

Social dilemmas

Answer 20

No one cares about others and people are obstacles

So there must be one central authority

Question 21

Natural rules

Answer 21

1. Seek peace
2. Make contract with others to preserve peace
3. Perform covenants made
4. Gratitude
5. Mutual accommodation and limits on the wealthy

Question 22

Influence on Skinner

Answer 22

Materialism
Epiphenomenalism
Determinism
Reductionism

Question 23

Consciousness

Answer 23

Byproduct of brain processes

Question 24

Skinner’s determinism

Answer 24

Did not believe in FW

If one understands antecedents, it is possible to predict action (impossible to prove)

Question 25

Skinner’s philosophy of government

Answer 25

Freedom as a dangerous delusion
Totalitarianism
Government sets up enforcement and contingency of punishment
Eliminates competition

Question 26

Materialism and Pinker

Answer 26

Better Angels of Our Nature
Decline of violence - punishment, murders, etc. compared to past
Role of the leviathan - 3rd party/state leads to better conditions than non-state