Philosophy For Dummies (US Edition)

Product Information

But then, it’s inevitable to ask old Aristotle about how this applies to people: What’s the intended purpose of a human being? Some philosophers following Aristotle’s lead have said that the answer is, “To be happy, to flourish, to live rationally and well.” It’s a big endeavor in philosophy to explore this more and figure out how normal questions of ethics or morality can be answered by referring to a broader conception of human flourishing or happiness. The functionalist idea is, in some forms, quite ancient. One can find in Aristotle the idea that things have their functions or purposes—their telos— essentially. In contemporary theories applied to the mind, the functions in question are usually taken to be those that mediate between stimulus (and psychological) inputs and behavioral (and psychological) outputs. Hilary Putnam’s contribution was to model these functions using the contemporary idea of computing machines and programs, where the program of the machine fixes how it mediates between its inputs and standing states, on one hand, and outputs and other standing states, on the other. Modern computers demonstrate that quite complex processes can be implemented in finite devices working by basic mechanical principles. If minds are functional devices of this sort, then one can begin to understand how physical human bodies can produce the tremendous variety of actions and reactions that are associated with our full, rich mental lives. The best theory, Putnam hypothesized, is that mental states are functional states—that the kind mind is a functional kind.

Most people think of themselves as more than mere objects, and indeed as subjects of experience and thought, as well as being free choosers of their actions. However, keep in mind the book is a bit pricey (due to its relative rarity?). You might want to first search for it in your local library.Wisdom may not be just the same thing as knowledge, but it’s deeply related to knowledge. Wise people know who they are, what they value, and where they want to go. They also know how to evaluate what others might say. A good place to start in any exploration of philosophy is with the idea of knowledge — what it is and how it works. As his crowning achievement: He wrote a famous treatise (The Republic) on the ideal society, in which he expressed the thought that a philosopher, of all people, should be king (big surprise!). Philosophy trains us to analyze. It also trains us to assess competing claims. Do people have free will, or are all our actions determined by heredity and environment? Does God exist . . . or not? Do humans survive physical death, or is everyone destined for personal extinction on the cessation of bodily functions? Does life truly have meaning, or is everything we do ultimately without any real sense and purpose? Is rollerblading great exercise, or is it the fastest route to the emergency room? (Okay, so not all questions are cosmic in proportion.)

Key contributions: Popularizing existentialism; summarizing the existential perspective in the phrase existence precedes essence; developing existentialism as a philosophy of freedom Consider, for example, mouse traps. Mouse traps are devices for catching or killing mice. Mouse traps can be made of most any material, and perhaps indefinitely or infinitely many designs could be employed. The most familiar sort involves a wooden platform and a metal strike bar that is driven by a coiled metal spring and can be released by a trigger. But there are mouse traps designed with adhesives, boxes, poisons, and so on. All that matters to something’s being a mouse trap, at the end of the day, is that it is capable of catching or killing mice. So, to have knowledge, it’s not enough to have a firm belief. You have to have some good evidence or reason to think the belief is true. This is a high standard, which is why the world is much fuller of opinion than it is of genuine knowledge. In addition, How Philosophy Workscovers a good range of philosophers, including the usual suspects Plato, Kant, Nietzsche, and so on. Everything is organized by theme (e.g. ‘mind and body’, ‘deconstruction’, etc.), which makes for easy reading that won’t clutter your mind. Out of Plato come all things that are still written and debated among men of thought. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

More - Education

John Searle’s “ Chinese Room Argument is aimed at computational versions of functionalism, particularly those that specify the relevant functions in terms of inputs and outputs without fixing the internal organization of the processes. Searle stipulates that “Strong AI” is the thesis than an appropriately programmed computer literally has mental states, and that its program thereby constitutes an explanation of its mental states and (following the functionalist inspiration) of human mental states (1980). Searle then describes a scenario in which a system that carries out the program consists in some books and pieces of paper, a pencil, he himself—John Searle—all inside a room. People on the outside pass questions written in Chinese into the room. And Searle, by following the directions (the program) in the books, is able to produce answers to those questions. But Searle insists that he does not understand Chinese and has no beliefs about the questions and answers. After all, one may suppose with him, he doesn’t even recognize that they are questions and answers written in Chinese, or any language at all for that matter. And he thinks it would be absurd to say that the room itself understands Chinese or has beliefs about the questions and answers. So, he concludes, the version of functionalism represented by Strong AI must be false. Having the right functions, at least when they are specified only by inputs and outputs, is not sufficient for having mental states. There are many different ways of living, and a wide variety of things to value and pursue in this world, but is there any overall meaning to life? Is there a meaning to it all? Or is the world and everything in it ultimately meaningless?

What do you mean? The grill was just delivered this afternoon, and the guy said it was ready to go.But for a very long time, philosophers have raised the question of whether human beings are anything more than just complex organic bodies, and the issue has often been put like this: Are there minds or souls as well as physical bodies, or is there anything like a spiritual self in addition to the brain and the nervous system? For more specificity, there are also further philosophy books in the series that individually examine Stoicism, Aristotle, Aquinas, the philosophy of science, and various other sub-categories of the field. Key works: Human, All too Human (1878–1880), The Gay Science (1882–1887), Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883–1891), Beyond Good and Evil (1886), The Genealogy of Morals (1887), Ecce Homo (1888)