Descartes` Method Of Doubt Essays - Philosophy Of Mind, Cognition

Descartes` Method Of Doubt Descartes applied illusion argument, dreaming argument, and evil genius argument that is called "method of doubt" to achieve his goals: Mind and body are two different substances, the complete separation of the mental world and the physical world. Once, he claims that even awake or asleep, two plus three is always five. Even evil genius fakes us, we probably think two plus three is four but in fact it always exist as five and it is always true. Lets look at this example: If I think that it's sunny outside, I can be wrong about sun but I cannot be wrong about my thinking that it's sunny. So, no matter if I am being deceived or dreaming either way I am thinking, which is certain knowledge. Even though our senses aren't reliable, when we see things we still have the experience of seeing that thing. Even if in a dream, an apple is still experienced as our definition of an apple. An apple in a dream will be still looked and smelled the same as an apple to us in a wake because the experience is the same. Because we really don't definitely know if we are awake or asleep at any time we can only say that the experience of the apple is certain in our minds. For example while one is in deep sleep we do not know whether we are thinking or not. When we wake up we may remember a dream or two but when we think about it they may only add up to about five minutes in length even though we know we were asleep for eight hours. There is all of that time when we don't remember what we were thinking or if we were even thinking at all. When using this argument as an objection to the "I think, therefore I am" we say that it is impossible to not be thinking because to stop thinking is to no longer exist. Descartes would say that even though we may not remember that we were thinking, we were thinking nonetheless. There are many things which we don't remember. I don't remember being born but that does not mean that I wasn't thinking at the time. During the night we might be woken up by a loud sound, but after we wake up we might not remember a thing. It still remains that even though we can't remember any thought before we wake, we know that there was because we heard the noise and woke up. We still have experiences while asleep whether they are dreams or experience of hot or cold or a smell or a sound. We know we still experience them because they arouse us to wakefulness and therefore are experience while in deep sleep. Therefore, it is possible that while in deep sleep we might not remember everything we thought but we are still thinking or else we would probably never wake up. Think about how you wake up at any time and it is obvious that some thought is involved. And the wakefulness by loud sound or disturbance is also called reaction but not the interaction of body and mind. Mind is conscious and non-spatial and body is spatial but not conscious. While separate, these two substances interact. The mind, which can't be doubt or divided or extended, no shape but it is to think in the pursuit of knowledge and the body, in return, can be doubt, divided, extended, occupied space, is a place containing brain that generates thought. Descartes asserts that the mind and body are separable and infinite by using his method of doubt to show that he could not doubt the existence of his mind. As long as we think, we are existing because we must exist first then to think. As doubting involved thought, and thought needs a consciousness to think it, Descartes was sure that he could not doubt his mind existed: "I think therefore I am". He claims to know what a thinking think is, and he regards we are as thinking thing. The Cartesian Dualism is still having problem of explanation of how mind and body interact or why mind does not stuck in body or mind control body. Insisting that the mental representation does not represent the physical is very confused and does not completely explain the issues. Descartes insists that God is responsible for these interactions and only He knows how the process works. So, reaction is the interaction

IM Not Scared Cahrts Micheles Increasing Maturity and Sense of Morality. Discuss. Essays

IM Not Scared Cahrts Micheles Increasing Maturity and Sense of Morality. Discuss. Essays IM Not Scared Cahrts Micheles Increasing Maturity and Sense of Morality. Discuss. Essay IM Not Scared Cahrts Micheles Increasing Maturity and Sense of Morality. Discuss. Essay I’m Not Scared is a coming of age text, written by Niccolo Ammaniti, and it is based on the journey of a young Michele Amitrano moving from childhood innocence to experience. Initially he is naive and ignorant towards things that has no impact to his ‘perfect little world’, however, after encountering several events he changes his perspective. This takes form through the influences of his peers, adults and a reflection of himself. Among Michele’s peers there are several whom that mould the journey of his increasing sense of morality and maturity. Skull, the tyrant leader of the children’s gang, is corrupted. He takes joy from tormenting and bullying others, he also enjoys giving orders but if they are not fulfilled he can ‘turn nasty. ’ Michele’s initial awakening of his morals comes from one of Skull’s cruel punishments. Skull forces Barbara to unbutton her shirt and show her ‘tits’ to everyone by threatening her saying that, ‘If you don’t, you can forget about coming with us anymore. ’ Obviously living in such a small, rural and secluded town like Acqua Traverse, that would seem like the end of the world to a 9 year old and hence against her wishes she reluctantly obeys. Out of curiosity Michele takes a peek, however he immediately feels regret like he has committed a crime. Barbara then takes her bottled up frustrations out on the small helpless and innocent dog, Togo. She pushes the dog under the mud in order to drown him, but when confronted by Michele, who witnesses everything. She immediately denies it all and produces excuses to try and explain her actions. ‘He’s crawling with ticks and fleas. That’s why I was giving him a bath. ’ As she tries to kill Togo, she actually sings the song called ‘The Beautiful Goodbye’ implying that this was the final farewell for the powerless dog. His best friend Salvatore is not any better he is manipulative and corrupted by greed. He ridicules Michele’s ‘Judas secret’ to later use it to his advantage and betrays Michele’s trust for the opportunity to gain driving lessons from their nemesis Felice. Felice Natale, who is Skull’s older brother, is the result of their brute of a father. With no moral sense at all, he is unaware of the consequences of his actions, such as the unnecessary lustful attack on Teresa right in front of Michele. He is forced to take care of Fillipo, who nicknames Felice as he â€Å"lord of the worms†, because he often threatens to squash him like a worm. As Michele learns more about the truth of the corrupted evil adult world, he changes his perception on everything. The pure image of his father whom he worshipped like an idol becomes tainted and shatters after he overhears his father threatening to cut off Fillipo’s ears. It was his comment â€Å"Two ear s we’ll cut off. Two. † That makes him doubt every little thing he once knew. The representation of his father warps into the bogeyman. ‘Papa was the bogeyman. By day he was good, but at night he was bad. ’ Through this experience of betrayal his wisdom increases and learns to accept the harsh reality. That monsters exist within people rather than imaginary figures. Michele’s mother Teresa is an admirable character that tries to protect Michele. She understands the consequences of actions long before the kidnapping of Fillipo, but as a woman in a male-dominated society, she is powerless to voice her opinions. Thus, she warns Michele â€Å"When you grow up you must go away from here and never come back. So that he does not become corrupted and influenced to be involved in criminal acts like all the adults in Acqua Traverse. At the beginning of the story Michele already displays a strong sense of justice which aids his maturity. His innate sense subconsciously prevails at times of need. The first signs of awakening morality are already evident at the beginning of the text, when he resists Skull’s second attempt to force Barbara to do another forfeit which consisted of showing her ‘slit’. Regardless of the consequences he takes responsibility because of his sense of morality. He intuitively volunteers to do it in her place because of the guilt he felt from the first forfeit. â€Å"There was something dirty, something.. I don’t know. † Although Michele is righteous he allows his greed to provoke him into revealing Fillipo’s whereabouts to Salvatore in order to gain the jinxed plastic football team that he does not really like. Yet upon reflection he immediately feels horrible and realizes that what he has done was bad, as he says ‘I was worse than Judas who had bartered Jesus for thirty pieces of silver†. Another similar challenge that Michele confronts is when his parents bribe him with a new bike to not see Fillipo. However, after his first encounter of being overcome by greed he knows better and decides to go against his father’s oath in order to save Fillipo which compensates for the ‘Judas secret’. The turning point for Michele when he loses his innocence and advances to maturity is when he realizes that he too is not perfect. He learns that he is capable of committing heinous crimes just like the adults did, because at the end of the day he too is human. â€Å"What was in my nature? What could I do? † was what he thought to himself. After all the blood of his father, who is a criminal, runs through his veins. However despite Michele’s age his ethics, compassion and innate sense of what is right are guides he uses to do the right thing. He gains wisdom through the experiences and events that occur throughout the text which result in a loss of naivety in order to become an adolescent.