Metaphysics

Professor’s Name Class’ Name Date ` Plato was a renowned philosopher in the early times. He has dealt with diverse issues in his work such as the politea, the philosopher king among others. He was in the early years inspired to become a politician but later on was discouraged by the circumstances that happened in the environment that he was in. He however diverted his focus to the study of philosophy. The final work that he did is normally taken to be comprised of a set of seven dialogues. His mentor, Socrates who was also his teacher greatly inspired his work.

He was the first to establish an academy in Athens. He greatly helped to lay the foundations of most of the western philosophy. A. N Whitehead asserts that most of the European philosophy contains footnotes of Plato. One of the greatest works of Plato concerns the republic, popular as politeia, which contains a wealth of descriptive materials on the kind of a republic that dispenses justice and the right kind of leadership expected in such a just society. The Plato’s republic dialogues took place around the time of Peloponnesian War. The work describes how an ideal leadership can be achieved in the society.

In addition, Plato also describes how an ideal leader can be able to attain the best character that can enable him/her to be the right leader in the society. He calls the ultimate position that one attains to become the best leader as ‘sunnum bonnum’. He describes the concept of justice in an in-depth manner. He treats the concept of justice both from the societal point of view and from the point of view of the individual. He argues out that there are two things that an individual can hold in life. There is reality and just appearance (Plato & Jowett, 1941).

There is also the rightful means of acquiring knowledge. The foundations of morality are also clearly elaborated in the work of the republic. He also says that there are the right components of an effective education which an individual must follow in order to be the best leader in any given society. Basing on the work of Plato, the reality of nature is not always contained in what we can be able to see. He says that human beings who have attained the highest sense of knowledge are those whose focus transcends the visible world to focus to the invisible. He perceives hat the visible in most times can be deceiving. His first attempt was to give a detailed account of the analysis of the formation and organization of the state. He then used this to apply to the individual person. According to him, the reason why we form a society is because we cannot be self sufficient as individuals. We are highly dependent on each other. No one is self sufficient that can work alone and acquire of the necessities of life. The society is therefore comprised of individuals who come together so that they can be able to achieve common goals.

The discussion on the significance of society elaborates further that specialization and division of labor leads to establishment of a worthwhile community. This concept is in line with the idea held by the functionalism sociological theories which holds the idea that the attainment of harmony in the society results when individuals are held responsible in different positions in the society. He gives an example of a typical society composed of the citizens in addition to other classes that ensure mutual benefit. There are the guardians, who are held responsible for society’s management.

There are different types of guardians, the soldiers and the rulers. The function of the soldiers is to defend the state against external attack by enemies. The work of the rulers is to make decisions concerning the public as well as resolve disagreements among citizens. The soldiers cannot have private properties or have children and they can be from both genders. They are perceived to see reality beyond what the senses can allow them to reach. I can agree with Plato’s concept of justice regarding the responsibilities of the different classes in the state.

However, I disagree with his concept on the restrictions that are to be imposed on the guardians. The natural division of each person’s responsibilities where the children whose parents are rulers take up the responsibilities as well as the idea of telling lies or myths when they are called. The choice of rulers basing on inheritance is not also objective. This is because the choice of incoming leaders from the outgoing leader’s children leaves out the possibility of electing the rightful leader from among the general population.

To be able to govern the state, the guardians have to be special people. They must be endowed with capacity to be temperamental. They have to think philosophically. The value of good education was emphasized in Plato’s concept of the republic. He advocated for an organized and an in-depth system that will ensure that the individual will definitely attain the highest sense of education. This will erase the issue of the person confusing between deceptions/ illusions with reality. The highly educated man will eventually gain all the necessary skills to be able to govern the state.

Self-deception on the other hand created by lack of sufficient education, may lead to an individual’s ignorance of the truth about their natures as human beings. From his point of approach, Plato says that it is important to control the kind of materials that children are in touch with. Those that they read see and hear. The training given to the individuals in form of education is the one that equips them to be able to handle the governance of the state. Depending on the level of training of the person, they can either be the soldiers or the rulers.

However, the concept of natural selection of leaders will possibly be threatened by a revolution against the guardians if they do not meet the expectations of the subjects. From Plato’s point of view, the society needs first to convince the general population on the idea of natural division of labor from childhood. This idea would play a big role in shaping the thinking of the children and the people in general such that their minds will be fixed. This is contrary to his ideas on the potentiality of human mind as explicitly explained in the analogy of the cave.

The justification of naturalness on the position of the individual in the society will create natural hierarchy which will indirectly affect the quality of leadership in the society. His approach is however, aimed at preventing the citizens from rebelling as well as keeping justice by everyone doing what he/she is supposed to be doing. The children according to Plato’s idea should only be taught the relevant material and literature that will ultimately ensure that they are skilled on the area of their duties.

There should be restrictions as well as the quality on what the children are taught to ensure that satisfaction and efficiency in the state’s activities are maintained. However, there could be self deception by the children of the guardians that they are the best to take over from their parents which creates a false illusion (Plato & Jowett, 1941). Quality of leadership can be compromised which would hitherto disrupt Plato’s just society. Plato’s concept also emphasizes gender equality. It does not differentiate between the men and women.

He believes that both men and women have equal intellectual capacity. Therefore according to him, the women as well can also be able to perform roles such as being guardians because their children will be reared by different parents. They are also detached from enjoying worldly pleasures such as being paid lowly. These disadvantages therefore discourage others from aspiring from becoming guardians. The guardians would approach issues from philosophical points of view and education that provided them with training that ensured that they reach the highest level of education.

This would enable them to be able to distinguish between fiction and reality. This achievement is what Plato calls the highest sense of goodness, “sunnum bonnum” (Plato & Jowett, 1941). With this situation, they have attained the highest level of knowledge that can enable them to rule the people. The progress of the guardians is compared to the case of prisoners in an underground cave who are in darkness. At first, they could see shadows in the cave as reality (Watt, 1997). The people can however detach themselves and receive the light or truth.

They are at first reluctant to receive the truth. The process of enlightenment according to Plato is a painful one entailing a lot of courage, persistence and patience. After the individual receives the truth concerning the reality, they should also enlighten others so that they should also know the reality and change the society. This is what produces change in the society. The training explained by Plato is the one that is directed towards the perceived guardians. The level of performance of the children being trained at an early age depends on whether they can be guardians or not.

It also depends on whether they will be soldiers or rulers. To Plato, it is the duty of the society to be able to design a kind of educational system that will distinguish the future citizen’s roles. The training of the young people should be in line with their abilities (Plato & Jowett, 1941). Three distinct people in the state are brought out by Plato; rulers, soldiers and the commoners (Plato & Jowett, 1941). He maintained that membership in the guardian class will solely depend on the possession of appropriate skills.

However, he held the idea that the off springs of the current guardians will most likely take over from them. These believe held by Plato is probably a means of social control and a tool used to maintain the status quo even by the unscrupulous leaders. Severe restrictions should be imposed to the guardians to control their quest to own properties. Since they are already endowed with superior natures, there is no need for wealth or other external rewards. The guardians should not own private properties. They should not also earn surplus income more than what fulfils their basic needs.

In this case, most people will be discouraged from seeking the position of leadership. The kind of leadership that he advocates is the one that seeks the welfare of the state. This will ensure that the best of the citizens will be attained. The different classes working for the common good of the state need to develop certain qualities or virtues in order to achieve the best. The rulers, being responsible for making public decisions which affect the citizens, must have the virtue of wisdom. This is the capacity to make the right decisions, make impartial judgments and comprehend reality.

The soldiers are endowed with the capacity to defend the state. They must therefore develop the virtue of courage. This is the willingness to sacrifice oneself and offer themselves to accomplish the interests of the state regardless of their personal welfares such as personal risks. The commoners must not pursue their own personal interests but must in all capacities strive to obey rules that emanate from the leaders. They must therefore exhibit the virtue of moderation. This involves the process of moderating ones personal desires for the purpose of a higher course.

Plato asserted that when the different classes play their roles without overlapping with the roles of the other party, harmony is attained in the society and everything flows smoothly (Watt, 1997). Justice according to him is not the exclusive responsibility of one of the classes but it is the harmonious interrelationship between the different classes in the state. He then used the concept of the state to explain the virtues of the individual human beings. He presumed that just like the state, the individual has a complex system of different parts that function to attain harmony within the individual.

The physical body corresponds to the land, buildings and other physical material resources of the city. In addition, every human being has got three souls that correspond to the three classes in the state. Each of them contributes in their own way to the successful operation of the person as a whole. There is the rational soul. It is also the mind or the intellect. This is the thinking portion of all humans that is responsible for discernment of reality and differentiates it with illusions. What is right and what is wrong, what is true and what is false. There is also the spirited soul.

It is the active portion of the humans that normally acts the will of the intellect. Finally we have the appetitive soul, which is emotional and contains desires. It wants and feels many desires. Most of the desires emanating from it must be deferred if the individual is to exercise self control directed by the rational pursuits. Just as in the case of a well organized state, justice in an individual is achieved when all the components making up the individual work in harmony. The tripartite division as explained by Plato forms the basis of understanding the individual.

From the view that Plato develops, justice is better than injustice. True justice in human beings is a kind of good health that can only be attained when all the sections of the soul work together in harmony (Irwin, 1999). In an unjust person, the parts are in constant conflicts, poorly organized and disintegrated compromising the personality. The whole idea of the state is explained by Plato from the philosophical point of view. He states that philosophy opens up peoples thinking to be able to see far. This is parallel to the light provided by the sun.

Philosophy is a great tool that helps people to be able to deal with life issues on a logical point of view. Just like the sun sheds light in the morning and darkness disappears, the same way philosophy enlightens the individual to be able to view issues from a wider and in depth perspective. This helps one to solve issues that affect the individual and those that affect the society. According to Plato, the love of philosophy is the love of reality. Those who remain in the world of shadows miss a lot of reality. When they are enlightened, they behave in the most noble way.

To elaborate further the issue of enlightenment brought about by philosophy, Plato used the analogy of the cave. The allegory of the cave presents a condition where a group of prisoners are chained in a cave. The cave is dimly lit. The prisoners cannot be able to turn their heads and hands because they are fastened by ropes. They stare to a wall in front all day. There is a small fire outside the cave. A group of puppeteers are walking along a small raised path which is adjacent to the cave. The small fire projects shadows on the wall they are facing on. They just see the shadows of the objects which are outside.

They believe that the shadows that they see are true. The people have been in the cave since childhood and have never seen the outside light (Plato & Jowett, 1941). The raised path also contains people who are walking along it. As usual some are talking while others are silent. The prisoners just see the shadows of the objects in the opposite wall. They cannot be able to see the real objects because their legs, hands and necks are fast chained. What they can only see images of themselves as well as the images of the outside objects being projected by the fire which is lit outside.

They do not also hear the reality of what the people are saying. To them the truth is literally nothing else than the shadows that they can see (Plato & Jowett, 1941). Plato tries to explain what would happen when the prisoners are released from the underground cave. Plato explains what would happen when one of the prisoners is liberated and allowed to see the real objects outside. When one of the individuals is allowed to see the light outside, the eyes will suffer sharp pains due to the glare of the light outside. At first, he will not be able to see the realities which at first he had seen as shadows.

He will also conceive someone saying to him that what he was saying was just an illusion. When he gets nearer to the reality and more light continues to shed on him, he is likely to react differently from his earlier conditions. If he is asked to name the objects that are real, he is likely to say that the shadows he saw earlier were the real objects and that what he was being shown was the illusion. When he is compelled to look straight into the glare, he might feel a sharp pain in the eyes that will compel him to resist reality and instead want to go back to see the objects which he can see without the pain.

When he will be forced to see the light of the sun, he is also likely to be pained and irritated. When he approaches to the light, the eyes are likely to be temporarily blinded and he may not see anything of the realities. Other released prisoners are likely to behave differently. Some are likely to be resilient while others are likely to adapt to the reality world. In explaining this, when each of the individuals are placed in such a situation, they are also likely to behave in a similar to the prisoners. The allegory of the cave explains the process in which individuals undergo in the process of being enlightened.

Each of the human beings has their own cave that they live in before the process of enlightenment turns an individual to think objectively. When one is not enlightened, they are like prisoners who are living in an underground cave. They always have the habit of seeing darkness. They distort reality and confuse reality for illusions. In a political situation for instance, the leaders do not know the reality about how they are supposed to lead. They therefore lead the people in the wrong direction because of the concepts that they hold which are not universal and are based on superficial reasoning.

From a wide field of view, Plato believes that to maintain harmony and justice in society, everyone should be able to perform his/her activity in the society. I agree with this conception of Plato because a just and an efficient society is where there is no overlapping of issues. Where individuals play roles that they are not meant to be playing, there will be confusion and conflict is likely to arise in such situations. For instance, in a typical society where the police have been employed, they are supposed to maintain law and order in order to ensure that activities in the society run normally.

They will punish the law breakers which will ensure that vices do not happen in the society. On another level, the traffic police would be able to deal with the drivers who break traffic rules. This will ultimately tend to minimize the accidents that happen on the roads. This ultimately produces harmony in the society. The issue that the lives of individuals are predetermined raises concerns on the freedom of the individual to rise to the position of leadership based on merit. Personal freedom is the key factor that determines who we are.

Individuals should therefore be given a chance to choose the kind of life that they want to lead. It is through freedom that people come to know the kind of positions that is best suited to them. This happens through the meaning that is attached to things. In this case, Plato seems to ignore important factors such as hard work, passion and experience that allow humans to do extremely well in their endeavors even though they may not seem to be naturally gifted in such areas. Success in matters concerning leadership requires an integration of different factors apart from the natural qualities.

Tasks are accomplished easily by use of the natural talents but they do not guarantee efficient accomplishment. Moreover, people with the zeal to succeed in certain tasks may at times do it better than those who are gifted because they are motivated to excel in such activities. A contradiction also arises in the case where Plato advocates for telling of lies in order to perpetuate the natural division of the different roles. On one hand, Plato advocates for morality. On the other hand, it is ironical to advice the educators to propagate falsehoods in order to reinforce the issue of naturalness of division of labor.

Educators are meant to be role models in terms of being a role moral educator. Kant argues that everybody is equal, free and able to reason. Therefore holding the believe that the guardians are pure and are the ones who can only reason logically is a fallacy. The fact that the guardians are endowed with the capability of thinking philosophically does not in any way deny other people a chance to exploit their intellectual capability. The focus of such a concept can only be aimed at maintaining the status quo of the elites.

They therefore prevent other categories from accessing chances in such status and analyzing the different possibilities of change that can be effected. (Foster,1937). The concept of Plato seems to bring about discrimination in the society. This happens when he advocates for the guardians to choose their partners from their fellow guardians. This will consequently tend to maintain power and authority among a small group of people. It is viable to choose leaders by producing intelligent people with philosophical thinkers. The idea that the guardians should live in poverty without families or property ownership is a violation of human nature.

Plato provides an ideal situation of a different human who can live special lives. They can even fully sacrifice their comforts for the sake of the general population. This however is not always the truth. It could be hard if such a system was to be induced (Foster,1937). Most of the people are employed to gain material wealth. Denying them such kind of a right would repel services from such people. Plato’s concept of the allegory of the cave is highly applicable especially in the contemporary society. First, it brings out the real meaning of education.

From his explanation, education is not meant to make individuals conform to the prevailing conditions. It is meant to reform the intellectual capability of the individual such that they can be able to discover issues on their own. The work of the educator is to ignite the person. From there the learner can be able to discover things on their own. He refuses to believe that the human mind is limited in any way. He believes that the human intellect is special in that it has an endless potential to venture into the infinite world of possibilities.

From this understanding, human beings may realize their full potential and engage their full potential in solving problems especially those that affect the society. For example in leadership, the leaders should not be limited to the thinking applied since their childhood. As they grow up they should learn to adapt to new ways of solving problems and relating with the general public. Plato’s concept will also help every individual to respect each other regardless of their tribe or race as long as they understand that they are all special creatures.

In a nutshell therefore, the work of Plato is still influential today as it can be applied to solve many problems in the current society. Works cited M. B. Foster. “A Mistake of Plato’s in the Republic. ” Mind, 46 (1937): 386–393. T. H. Irwin. “Republic 2: Questions about Justice. ” in Plato 2: Ethics, Politics, Religion, and the Soul, ed. , Gail Fine (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 164–185. Watt, Stephen (1997), “Introduction: The Theory of Forms “, Plato: Republic, London: Wordsworth Editions, pp. pages xiv–x Plato, & Jowett, B. (1941). Plato’s The Republic. New York: The Modern Library.

The nature and status of Folk Psychology (UP) In philosophy circles is controversial. In this essay I shall begin by briefly defining what folk psychology Is. Followed by an outline on eliminative where some of the controversy lies. My main focus will be on Paul Churchyard’s views and his arguments against UP, as this will enable me to facilitate an assessment of his criticisms.

Subsequent to that I will search for my own view in the defense of UP in the light of its proponents such as Horror and Woodward or Denned. By doing this I will then be able to gauge the plausibility of Churchyard’s criticisms of UP. Folk psychology (UP) is the name given by lamentableness to the common sense understanding of the mind (Mind and Bodies pep). A common sense view which accepts that we all have desires and emotions such as fear, lust, beliefs, desire, pain, pleasure ,love, hate, joy attraction and so forth.

These deferent states of being are utilized in what are called propositional attitudes which show intent. An example of a propositional attitude is Brenda ‘believes’ she can win the lottery, Hereford ‘believes’ is the Intentionality in this propositional attitude. The view of UP encapsulated by Paul Churchyard Is that It “embodies our baseline understanding of the cognitive, affective, and purposive nature of person. Considered as a whole, it constitutes our conception of what a person is”. (Churchyard in Guatemalan, 1994, p. 08) Before we go on to examine Churchyards criticism of UP, I think it would be useful to give a brief overview of the eliminations viewpoint regarding UP. Eliminative materialism (also called eliminative) Is a materialist position in the hilltop’s of mind. Its primary claim is that people’s common-sense understanding of the mind (or folk psychology) Is false and that certain classes of mental states that most people believe in do not exist (Wilkinson, Mind and Bodies pep) Paul M. Churchyard (b. 942) a Canadian-born philosopher is a leading proponent of eliminative; he is a long time critic of UP and the foremost advocate of neuroscience. Churchyards criticism dovetails with the eliminations claim that UP is a false theory “Eliminative materialism is the thesis that our common-sense inception of psychological phenomena constitutes” (eliminative Materialism and the Propositional Attitudes’ Paul M Churchyard Reading 6, Wilkinson, Mind and Bodies p 194). He claims that UP is not only a radically false theory but also an empirical theory by pointing out Its similarities with other theories.

He does this by stating how our “familiar mentalist vocabulary’ is to be understood like other semantic terms. In that the terms used need or in fact do operate by a network of formulate laws like any other theory. An example of how Churchyard employs UP as theory Is found In his hypothesis argument on understanding the minds of others. He says that we can use UP as a hypothetical framework which Works in the main and is reasonable’ to employ (Wilkinson, Mind and Bodies pep).

Although Churchyard accepts our everyday use of UP as a reasonable thing to do he still argues forcefully his claim, that UP is a false theory and does this with a three pronged attack: – (a) its ontology is an illusion, (b) It is a stagnant theory and incapable of advance (c) It Is not reducible to neuroscience. (a) Churchyard begins his attack on UP by declaring that It ouch as mental illness; imagination; intelligence differences; sleep issues; motor co- ordination; perceptual illusions and memory, that he claims UP has nothing to say.

He includes learning in this critique and with a further assault on UP propositional attitudes, questions where they are stored and how they are learnt to be employed, both vital to UP views on the conception of the mental. However Churchyard does not go as far as to say UP is not true but rather illusionary and that “UP is at best a highly superficial theory’ (Ibid IPPP up 16) (b) Churchyard argues on historical grounds that The UP story is one of retreat infertility and decadence” (Ibid IPPP IPPP).

He gives the example of how early man used UP to relate to their environment in a naive fashion believing that the wind was capable of anger, the moon Jealousy as examples of early intentional attitudes. Therefore backing up his argument that UP along with these historical intentional attitudes has become stagnant and sterile and had to give ground in the face of better theories from the area of empirical science (Wilkinson Mind and Bodies pep). To add further weight to this criticism Churchyard uses Mire

Legatos’ terms that “UP is a stagnant or degenerating research program, and has been for millennia” (Churchyard, Reading 6, Wilkinson, Mind and Bodies, IPPP, up 18). (c) Theoretical reductionism, the process by which one theory is absorbed into another is what Churchyard uses as the main thrust of his argument that UP is probably false as it is not reducible to neuroscience. How UP promises theoretical integration by Churchyard’s opinion is very poor he bashes FPS lack of progress and coherence in relation to natural history and physical sciences.

Where he believes there growth in rinsing understanding of man is out performing UP in many respects, pointing to neuroscience breakthroughs in human sensory input and neural activity. Furthermore according to Churchyard, UP is akin to a misfit standing alone looking incapable of synthesis as FPS “stagnation and explanatory impotence promise little faith” (Ibid IPPP IPPP). Moreover UP will not likely be reflected by neuroscience as it will seem to be antiquated and here he draws a parallel between UP and ‘Aristotelian cosmology.

His final and most damming attack to back up his arguments on FPS laziness is that it “suffers explanatory failures on an epic scale” (Ibid, IPPP, IPPP). I will now go over the main points of Churchyards arguments and challenge their validity and soundness in the light of his main critics and defenders of UP. Churchyards first criticism that there are areas of the mind such as motor co- ordination, sleep and memory which he says are not dealt sufficiently by UP. And implying that its ontology may be false is objected to by a riposte from two American philosophers Horror and Woodward in defense of UP.

Firstly on the grounds that to impose demands on any psychological theory accounting for considerable know how when theoretical knowledge is relatively primitive (A fair point given that psychology as a medical discipline has only been practiced about the last one hundred years). Secondly, as Churchyard argues if UP is to be a successful theory the fact it must offer explanations for all the phenomena it lists in Horror and Woodward opinion this argument needs to be treated with skepticism and caution (Horror and Woodward, 1985, up. 00). Finally as Churchyard’s narrowing of FPS definition does not cover retain areas of the mind it is also dismissed, with good argument I think, because cognitive psychology has developed detailed theories on intentional psychologies (UP) Churchyards empirical argument fails to provide a convincing critique on the grounds that the theories outlined are explainable in terms of UP. Churchyards second assault on UP that it is a stagnant theory employing the same mentalist framework as the ancient Greeks.

Horror and Woodward have a counter argument they rebut his view by citing the progression in 18th and 20th century literature such as Jane Austin and John Birth. Furthermore bringing their point to bear with great assurance when they point to the modern day skill in appealing to our “unconscious beliefs and motivations”, in my view borne out when viewing our modern day advertising. Therefore a rebuttal to Churchyards assertion that UP is a stagnant theory, incapable of advance is found to be false (Wilkinson, Mind and Bodies pep).

In reply to Churchyards controversial damning conclusion on FPS falseness due to its inability to reduction and that it “suffers explanatory failures on an epic scale” (Reading 6 IPPP,IPPP), American philosopher Daniel Detente (1942) points out hat eliminations fails to recognize UP as a ‘normative’ theory (not Just a descriptive one). In that it also encapsulates an ‘ideal’ or recommendation on how to proceed as a rational being with a value structure which incorporates social practices, such as greeting, reassuring, that is relevant to everyday existence.

A pertinent point made by Denned in that it is not Just crucial not only to our own reason as human beings but that it enables us to act and think rationally and facilitates good social relations. This as can be deduced makes a mockery of Churchyards FPS falseness claims. These thoughts are mirrored by Horror and Woodward that UP although probably not reducible to neuroscience “Churchyard is Just mistaken to assume that UP must be reducible to neuroscience in order to be compatible with it” (Horror and Woodward, 1985, PEP).

The assessment and examination of eliminations views on Folk Psychology with particular regard to Churchyards criticisms and UP defenders crystallites for me the essence of the UP debate, theory or practice? , reality or illusion? , past or future? UP for me is a skill nurtured by the past and in my opinion elegantly defended by Horror and Woodward arguments not only for its continual relevance but its reliance upon contemporary culture implying a growth in its lexicon.

Finally Dent’s utter dismissal of the eliminations views that UP left a great deal unexplained. And it is by Dent’s assertion that we need UP to give us a language of reason for both our personal and social behaviors, a real boon to Folk psychology. After defining and outlining both UP and eliminative, we can see some plausible solutions to the controversy with regards to the claims that UP is a false theory, Rutherford that it is illusory, stagnant and non reducible. In my opinion Churchyard’s assertion that UP is a false theory is invalid.

As having seen the arguments for criticizing UP I have come to the view that Churchyard’s criticisms of UP can easily be argued against, not because of his limitations of his understanding but because of his not taking into account ‘normative’ values pointed out by Denned. But also invalid on the grounds that at least two to three thousand years in the life of mankind would be in my view absurdly dismissed. And finally if we were all given a behaving like robots making poetry and art nonsense!

Positive Psychology Themes I believe that positive psychology gives a better understanding that we are able to improve the quality of our own lives by making positive decisions and learning from experiences in the past. Positive psychology attempts to encourage interpersonal relationships, happiness, and positive social interactions. Personal growth and our ability to control our own destiny are also factors of positive psychology. In my opinion positive psychology teaches us that we have the freedom to make autonomous choices in life even though the negative influences still surround us.

Through the incremental theory, positive psychology has stressed the amount of importance of human adjustment as a malleable cognitive characteristic that encourages change in our beliefs, behaviors, and environments; in order to acquire personal freedom through self-control and self-esteem Positive psychology acknowledges that we are creatures and creators of our personal and social worlds. I think that we become less creatures of our world and more creators as we assume the responsibility for the actions we take in life. Through our freedom of autonomy we develop a certain sense of morality and ethics.

Positive psychology also evaluates the issue of control in relation to leading a fulfilling life. If a person has an internal locus of control they are more likely to push to achieve their full potential in the things they do. On the other hand those with an external locus of control feel powerless within their own lives and attempt to settle for less than what they deserve because they feel they have no control over their life. If we were to fully understand the themes of positive psychology we could become more qualified to improve our own lives.

The ethical dilemma presented In the case study examines If you would allow an Innocent person to be charged with offense he did not commit. You have been asked to keep quiet by a friend, someone you have known for years. Although you are positive that your friends did not commit the act, you are sure there is an innocent person wrongfully accused. I believe that it is my duty to be honest and tell the truth about the situation. According to Morehouse (2013) ethics is concerned with the kind of values and morals an individual or a society finds desirable or appropriate.

My motives for my decision are strictly based on my personal values and morals and not the relationship. Justification and reasoning Each relationship that we have whether personal or professional creates a human action. Whether these actions are directly or indirectly, they form some sort of obligation. The case study presented identified that I am friends of someone within my command who has asked me to withhold information while the relationship with the accused is displeasing.

Whether it is a moral obligation or the duties and right to aspect the rights of people, the obligation in the relationship are affected by our conduct. If I decided to keep the information to myself, I may be seen as loyal. However, my obligation would be respect the innocent when making a moral judgment. The values that I possess have a bearing to the relationships. These values are a moral obligation for the truth. The relationship has no relevance for my moral action. Ethical frameworks Addressing ethical issues from an awareness of the theoretical framework may increase a leader’s moral development (Savannah et al. 1981; Goldberg, 1969). In order to comprehend the reason behind ethical motives, you must understand the ethical framework that guides these behaviors. The two ethical theories that deal with the behaviors are Teleological, which represent consequences and Deontological with represents duty. Teleological deals with a person’s conduct producing desirable consequences. Deontological focuses on the actions of the leader and his obligations to do the right thing. Teleological or deontological frameworks do not take Into account the rights of individuals.

The implications of the “Consciousness and Neuroscience ” is that the neural correlates of consciousness is not enough to prove that a conscious can be cry dated. 3. Francis Crick and Christofis Koch publish on the Oxford Journal at first was m aging banter about covering scientific ground about leaving the work to philosopher RSI and that science is too young. One of the concepts was replacing the visual consciousness and working on macaque monkeys.

Crick and Koch agree with Ranchmen’s and Horsiest SST eating in order to eliminate hesitation, is sensible to have only one conscious interpretation of a usual scene. Through this philosophy, one of their mainsails was that Artificial Conscious requires a stream of pure decision with the delayed hesitation following in a timely man nerd and that machines at this point in time do not fulfill this requirement. 4. Consciousness and Neuroscience apply to my paper in giving counterpoint s to the possibility of whether an Artificial Consciousness could exist.

It gives a lots of evidence using neural science and the anatomy of the brain and how there are plenty of sass motions that questions the Neural Correlates of Consciousness. It also questions whether t he strict structure of illicit chips could create a legal conscious or not, depending on the definition n of what a Quant, 5 conscious actually is, in their case they base their argument mainly on the Visit al Consciousness, which is indeed is one of the easier forms of consciousness to study because t he visual input are vivid, rich and highly structured but very easy to control.

And whether or not an Artificial Consciousness could be created is dependent on these basic experiments. 5. Crick, Francis and Koch had related their argument of analogies between live Engines and consciousness as only an analogy to Chalmers argument, an analogy is o lay an analogy. They are trying to prove Chalmers quail wrong because the”Hard problem” is only subjective experiences that rise from the brain processes however has many questions t hat defeat the “Hard Problem. ” 1. Mismatch, Steven. “Should There Be a Limit Placed on the Integration of Hum NAS and Computers and Electronic Technology? THE ETHICS OF THE COWBOY . Florida International University, n. D. Web. 03 Feb.. 2015. Http://www. Fib. Deed/-mismatch/cybernetics. HTML 2. Authors main claim is that even with bioethics, once a technology is out in p public, it cannot ever go away. This is just like squeezing a toothpaste out of the bottle, but who en you have to put it all back in you realized what you have done. The subclass were positive AR augments and negative consequences towards ciborium speaking of the ethics of implanted d chips and sensors into the human body.

The evidence were heavily based on history such as the Wassermann barrier or the Cremation and Neanderthal past. 3. EGG, skill chip implants, cold fusion and hyper intelligence have all been intra educed to the reader and might have to be bombarded with technical terms first before the y could understand the main point of the bioethics and morals. Quant, 6 4. Sans et. Al helped me understand the morals and ethics from a different CB org point of view where they have both positive and negative outcomes when they introduce the is new technology.

Listing all of the consequences is not possible, however listing the major ones are. The morals and ethics could go to my own research near the end where after I explained that creating an artificial intelligence is possible, would also explain to the readers that there are also ethical and moral boundaries to it too. 5. Bioethics relates greatly to Chalmers ‘ ‘The Puzzle of Conscious Experience” where there is a nagging quail in a synthetic brain and the possibility of inserting silicon chips into human brains. 1. Pinker, Steven. The Brain: The Mystery Of Consciousness. ” Time . Time Inc. , 29 Jan. 2007. Web. Jean. 2015. Http://content. Time. Com/time/magazine/article/O,9171,1 580394, 00. HTML 2. The authors McClain is that the Conscious is a fragile temporary gift and that even though there are “easy’ and “hard” problems only that person has control to believe whether people have a conscious. Pinkie’s subclass, understanding the consciousness allows others to see morality and interest in others and using experiences to shape our perspective s and our consciousness, support his main claim.

He quotes Descartes, Freud, McGinnis, and Detente to help support his argument towards morals and practices. He also explains the bin ocular rivalry experiment which further supported his argument on consciousness. One WA arrant is if there was a afterlife and that the soul and conscious lives after the body dies, then there would be great sadness in humans and that we are just free agents taking responsibility. Quant, 7 3. Pinker also mentions the Astonishing Hypothesis, the idea that our thought s, aches, sensations and joys all consist of physiological activity inside the tissues of the brain.

And it could be further controlled by Illusions from electrical stimulations. The question is who ether conscious is really controlled in the human mind and whether that could be transferred to the machine world. Would an artificial conscious mind really be fighting for control as the binocular AR rivalry theory states? Would the artificial brain be in its own illusion of control as human bra ins do or would it also have competing events for attention of the conscious? Pinkie’s ethics and ideas brings a new vision on his morality stating that the biology is much better than an unknown n immortal soul.

Although understanding physiology of conscious treats human pains and scuff erring, we would also understand the interests of others and share morals. 4. Pinkies article answers many Of my questions and doubts within the aspect of control of human consciousness. He guided me through the thought process that human ins have the “Illusion of Control” in which they really do not and that relates to my point whether Ar difficult Intelligence has their own algorithm of thought processes and thought control l. Will the artificial brain put conscious effort that it is thinking more than just one thought at a it me?

And also ender if a artificial conscious would believe its own lies. As scary as it would get, that would be interesting to see what would happen if an artificial conscious learned cacti ions that go against human morals and whether it could fix itself or keep with its first teachings. 5. Steven Pinker, a professor at Harvard, further argues Chalmers argument of the Easy vs. Hard problem and how the first person subjective is harder to physiologically nude restated than the easy problem presented by Freud: distinguish unconscious versus conscious comb tuition.

Quant, 8 1 . Sans, Richard, Gigantic Lopez, and Julia B. Alonso. A Rationale and Vision for Machine Consciousness in Complex Controllers (n. D. ): n. Page. University Polytechnic De Madrid JIM, 2007. Web. 3 Feb.. 2015. Http://attire. Slab. Ump. Sees/documents/controlled/ASLABB2007019. PDF >. The authors main claim is that building an artificial consciousness is not poss. able with their subclass being from a business perspective, making that largesse pro eject is teammate infeasible and expensive and from a technical perspective, autonomy mousey impossible.

The evidence goes deep into business mademoiselles and Vim’s autonomic computing initiative in 2003. However, their warrant would be the artificial co clots project would not be possible if and only if we continue business practices in t he future. 3. The key subclass was building a modeled glassware control system, mod ling an approach to System Development, and Self functionality and implementation n. All of these were the big ideas and reasons that backed the main claim.

Good experiences are something that we spend our life constantly striving to obtain. Once we gain these good experiences, we look for the next opportunity in order to gain that same great feeling that we had in our last experience. What if someone told you that there was a way to have these good experiences all the time? You could quite literally plug yourself into a machine that would give you the great experiences that you have been searching for your whole life. The best part is that, once you have decided to plug yourself into this machine, you would feel and think that these false experiences you are having are real.

proposes this very scenario in his book Anarchy State, and Utopia. This scenario is known as “the experience machine”. (Nozick 1974, 165) Sounds great, doesn’t it? I would beg to differ. Is pleasure really the only thing that we spend our life searching for? I would argue that there are far many other important values other than pure pleasure; that is why I would not plug into the experience machine. While Nozick’s scenario may seem very tempting, there are several key elements to consider before making a decision to enter this experience machine.

Does entering this experience machine correspond with one’s set of values? I would say that there are far more important things than just pleasure. It is fair to say that actually doing certain things, and not just simply having the experience of them is a good core value. We want to actually in our real world accomplish our own goals. Attaining these goals are what many people live their lives for. Aristotle claims, “Man is a goal seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals. (Aristotle, 163) Perhaps this is what we desire; to live our lives striving to achieve our goals. Whether all of our experiences are 100% pleasurable does not matter. As long as we know that we are actually living our own lives. Clearly, there is opposition to my argument. The opposing party may say something like, “What’s the value in the capacity to freely make decisions or the ability to be in the real world if neither of these things allows us to feel good? ” (Perry, 166) That is a fair question and one that Peter Unger cleverly answers.

Unger mentions the tendency for us to buy life insurance as a claim that good experiences are not the only thing that matter to us. We do not get good experiences for paying our life insurance. In fact, we will never experience anything that happens to this money. We do this so that our dependents will benefit from this money. With all this said, we are still very rational in buying this life insurance. (Unger 1990, 166) Therefore, we should value our capacity to make free decisions in the real world over just having good experiences.

The life insurance example, that Unger mentions, is a perfect example as to why there are things that matter to us besides pleasure. Nozick sums this up by saying, “Perhaps what we desire is to live as ourselves, in contact with reality. ” (Nozick? 2010, 1) One can interpret Nozick’s statement by his insinuation that gaining pure pleasurable experiences are not as valuable as knowing that we are living in contact with reality. We should cherish and desire our lives in our realistic world; false pleasure experiences have no real value.

In our lives, we want to BE certain people—to plug in to an experience machine is to commit a form of suicide. (Nozick? 2010, 1) Plugging into an experience in order for you to merely experience false happenings would be lying to yourself that this gaining false pleasure is actually being experienced. In the real world, we can actually mold ourselves into the person that we want to become through our real experiences. There is a certain value in actually accomplishing a goal that has been set for yourself. We have free will, unlike in the experience machine.

This free will allows us live in contact with reality and gain real life experiences by our choosing. This in turn, allows us to become the person that we want to be. Robert Nozick’s experience machine can be extremely tempting when taken at face value. It offers us false pleasure experiences that could possibly entice and excite many to consider plugging into this machine. However, we must not forget that having false good experiences is not worth throwing away a reality rich world—a world in which we have the free will to decide who we will become as a real person. One must never forget this value. This s a complicated matter but Nozick puts it well by saying, “We learn that something matters to us in addition to experience by imagining an experience machine and then realizing that we would not use it. ” (Nozick 1974, 165) When pondering this concept longer, we realize that we actually want to do certain things and not just have the false experience of having done them. (Nozick ? 2010, 1) We come to realize that this experience machine, while being tempting, does not correspond with our values and desires. Losing our free will and all contact with reality is not more tempting than being the authors of our own lives.

Reference List (Works Cited) 1. )Nozick, Robert. 1974. Anarchy, State, and Utopia. (cited in Introduction to Philosophy Fifth Edition. John Perry, Michael Bratman, John Martin Fischer. Oxford University Press. 2010. ) 2. )Aristotle. (Quoted in Genius! : nurturing the spirit of the wild, odd, and oppositional child . George T. Lynn, Joanne Barrie Lynn. 2006) http://books. google. com/books? id=LkNsXpMusnwC&pg=PA163&dq=Man+is+a+goal+seeking+animal. +His+life+only+has+meaning+if+he+is+reaching+out+and+striving+for+his+goals. &as_brr=0&cd=1#v=onepage&q=Man%20is%20a%20goal%20seeking%20animal. 20His%20life%20only%20has%20meaning%20if%20he%20is%20reaching%20out%20and%20striving%20for%20his%20goals. &f=false 3. )Perry, John; Bratman, Michael; Fischer, John Martin. Introduction to Philosophy Fifth Edition. Oxford University Press. 2010. 4. )Unger, Peter. 1990. Identity, Consciousness, and Value. (Cited in Introduction to Philosophy Fifth Edition. John Perry, Michael Bratman, John Martin Fischer. Oxford University Press. 2010. ) 5. )Nozick? , Robert. (quoted in Lewis and Clark: Robert Nozick. The Experience Machine 2010. ) http://legacy. lclark. edu/~jay/Robert%20Nozick. pdf.

We learned a lot of theories and got to know a lot of psychologists who made an effort to explain the way children feel. There are 3 grand theories; Psychoanalysis (Freud), Behaviorism (Watson, Skinner, Pavlov) and Cognitive (Planet). All this 3 theories explain the development of children from different prospective. Fraud’s theory of psychoanalysis becomes clear as to how he construed human character. Freud believed that human nature is basically deterministic, and largely dependent on the unconscious mind.

Irrational forces and unconscious motivations drive the human mind to a unique conduct and performance. He claimed that unconscious mind affects the largest part of our thoughts and behavior and that all our emotions and actions have causes In our unconscious mind. Another clients Erikson believed that personality develops in a series of stages. Unlike Fraud’s theory of psychosocial stages, Erosion’s theory describes the impact of social experience across the whole lifep. One of Erosion’s theories points is ego identity. Ego Identity is the sense of oneself as a distinct continuous entity.

According to Erikson, our ego identity is constantly changing due to new experience and Information we acquire In our dally Interactions with others. This means that Erikson feels that you are not necessarily born the way you are: you area born one way but things, and situations change who you are. I totally agree with Erosion’s theory because I also think that people change, and nothing stays the same. He also pointed out the importance of culture and family. From my point of view, family and culture have a great influence in the child’s fife.

If it weren’t for my family I wouldn’t be the person I am today. Cognitive development Is the development of thought processes, Including remembering, problem solving, and decision-making, from childhood through adolescence to adulthood. Before Piglet’s work, the common assumption in psychology was that children are merely less competent thinkers than adults. Pigged showed that young children think in strikingly different ways compared to adults. According to Pigged, children are born with a very basic mental structure.

Bigotry, believed that every aspect of children’s cognitive development Is embedded in social context. He believed that children learn via guided participation which I think Is the best way to help your child. One day when I have my own kid I will surely remember and use Viscosity theory to help my child make her/his cognitive development easier and more effective. 2. There are number of important Issues that made me think throughout the semester. The major questions include the following: Does development occur slowly and smoothly, or do changes happen in stages?

Do early holding experiences have the greatest Impact on development, or are later events equally Important? Some theories of development argue that changes are simply a matter of quantity, children display more of certain skills as they grow older. Other theories outline a series of sequential stages in which skills emerge at certain points of development. To my mind, from the very first day the child is born, he starts developing. The first 6 years of a child are the most active developmental years. After 6 years their development still continues and they master more skills as they grow older.

A second Important consideration In developmental psychology Involves the relative importance to early experiences versus those that occur later in life. Psychoanalytic theorists tend to focus upon events that occur in early childhood. According to Freud, much of a child’s personality is completely established by the age of five. If this is indeed the case, those who have experienced deprived or abusive childhoods might never adjust or develop normally. I don’t agree with Fraud because Many people with less-that-perfect childhoods go on to develop normally into well- adjusted adults.