I just wanted to recap on the class. I found everything we learned very interesting. I never knew anything about these types of issues. It opened up my mind to a lot of different aspects of life. I never thought about the difference between a mind and a brain, or ethics, or free will. I am very interested in a lot the topics we discussed. I find the hypothetical situations we discuss to be thought provoking. I really enjoyed being able to discuss my thoughts with the other people in our class. I got to hear what they thought and it gave me thoughts on other topics. Being able to discuss these topics was a great way to open up and expand my knowledge.

Free Will

I believe in free will. I believe we make our own choices for our own reasons. We aren't just a product of external forces. I believe my mind and body have wishes and goals and they work together to make these things possible. I want to think that we can make choices everyday that effect our lives. These choices effect our future and everything happens because of your past experiences. Outside forces have an influence but they are not the determining factor. Free will is a tricky subject and I'm not exactly sure how to define it. I want to believe it exists and I make a difference in my life but I'm not too sure.

Twist and Shout

One day in class we discussed a scenario where if you and your friends get in car accident and you don't have a phone to call for help but your friends are really hurt. So you walk to a house to ask for help but the grandma won't help. Is it okay for you to twist the arm of her grandchild to make her come out and listen. The end end justify the means. Or what if you think it won't hurt the child or the grandmother. But when you twist the child's arm you cause the grandmother to have a heart attack. I don't think that I would twist the child's arm. I would try any other possibility to save my friends without hurting anyone in the process.

Puppy Punting

A while back we discussed the idea of puppy punting. If you go to a foreign place and you see people punting puppies are you obligated to say something. If it is against your beliefs are you allowed to tell them its wrong. Maybe in their country they believe puppy punting in perfectly acceptable. I feel like you can talk to them about why you believe it isn't right but you cannot force your beliefs on them. You have to listen to their side and respect their decisions. I do not believe puppy punting is okay but it isn't your place to change the way someone else how to live their life. If it was in the United States I believe that I could voice my opinion more strongly and make a difference because that is not acceptable in the United States. I think this situation is one I will most likely not encounter, and I'm thankful for that.

Prison Experiment

I read the Milgrim Prison Experiment. This experiment took ordinary college students and simulated a real arrest and put them in prison. Half of the people involved became guards and half became prisoners. The prisoners were referred to by number so they had no individuality. They all wore the same uniform (which was like a dress) and wore something over their heads. In the experiment the prisoners felt like actual prisoners and the guards were hard on the prisoners and made them do humiliating things. The prisoners ended up becoming depressed and having emotional disturbances. The guards took their role too seriously and the man conducting the experiment went overboard as the supervisor of the prison. All of these ordinary people took on their role and made everything way too realistic. I was curious how I would handle this if I were in the situation. I would not want to simulate this experience for anything.

I read about the Asch's conformity experiment. It was an experiment where they had 6 people in a room look at the length on lines. They had to compare the first line against three other lines and see which was closest to the length of the first line. The people in the experiment said their answers out loud. In this experiment there were 5 people in the room comparing the lines that were actually researches a part of the experiment. The men involved in the experiment intentionally said answers that were obviously false. The first 4 men said bogus answers so then the fifth guy just said what the other 4 did so he didn't stand out even when he knew the answers were wrong. They also had a twist to the experiment. They had a person come in later and he had to write his answers. He got to listen to all of the other people's responses but he still put the correct one because he didn't feel the need to conform to what the others were saying. I thought this was very interesting. The answers were so obvious but people would rather go with the norm then stand out.

2 minds, 1 body

We watched a video a couple of weeks back about conjoined twins. They each had their own mind...but shared one body. They could each think freely, independent of the other. But they rely on one another to do simple tasks that require two hands like doing their hair, or tying their shoes. What if one of the girls decides she wants to braid her hair, and the other wants to wear it in a pony tail.. They need the other hand to accomplish each goal. They need to agree on everything in order to make life work. If one girl wants to walk left and the other right...they are at a stand still. Their minds are independent of one another but their decisions need to coincide. I would never want to rely on another person in order to do these simple tasks. Life would be so complicated. I give them a lot of credit for being able to work together as such a team and get through each and every day together.

I thought it was pretty cool when we watched a video in Philosophy about the experiment with the monkey and the joystick. The monkey first used its hand to control the joystick in order to make it move. Then after a few attempts the monkey decided to just use its brain to control the joystick. The monkey did not need to use its hand to make it move. The monkey's brain was hooked up to a machine and when the monkey thought, it moved the machine. I thought it was amazing. A monkey being able to direct a machine just by thinking. It is incredible what people come up with for experiments. I would love to be able to see more about this study and if there are any other experiments like this one out there.

Beaming to Mars?

A couple of weeks ago in class we had a discussion on being beamed up onto mars. Would that mean our body replicates and another form of ourself is put on Mars to live...or does our body on earth because erased and we transport to mars...or are we destroyed on eart and recreated on mars? Are we the same person on earth as we are on mars?! I'm not sure what I think. If it were possible to clone yourself and be on Mars I would want to be the same version of myself. But is that possible. Is it possible to be the same EXACT person in two places...I'm not too sure. I've never really thought about being recreated, or replicated. Would we age the same...would be turn into the same person living on two different planets. I do not think I would enjoy being destroyed and then recreated some place else. I would rather just be transported and then brought back to earth when I wanted my trip to be over.

Living Forever

One day in class a long time ago we talked about living forever. I would not want to live forever. I feel as though we should live our lives, and when it is time to die...that's your time. I think you should try and fit everything you want to do in your life into one lifetime. That makes you live your life to the fullest, if you know at one point you are going to die. If you could just live on forever, you would never get anything done. If you know at some point life will end you make the most of it. You accomplish things, you finish tasks you started, you reach for your goals. If I knew I was going to live forever I would just put everything off for the next day, because I knew I would always have tomorrow. I believe that everyone has a time when their life ends. This is necessary for human life to continue to exist as it has forever. You live, you die... end of story. If people just lived on forever we would never need to reproduce, and if we did the world would be over populated and what would be do then? I do not want to live forever and I can't see how anyone else would. Make the most of your life and spend your time wisely, because you only have one shot at it.

Brain in a Vat

I would never be able to grasp the idea of being a Brain in a vat.  I have never seen the Matrix, so I do not know exactly what the concept is but from discussions in class I know that i'm not a fan of the idea.  I like to think I am controlling my actions, my experiences, my feelings and emotions.  I believe I have a soul and a mind that make my decisions.  Our experiences shape our lives and our experiences happen for a reason.  They are the contributors to our future.  I do not believe the brain in a vat theory and I never will.  It is not something I want to put my faith behind.  Being a brain in a vat is the most outrageous theory I have ever heard.  I am in control of my brain...no one else and I will continue to believe that.  

Philosophy Blog 9/6/09

I found all of the presentations on Friday very interesting.  It was surprising to see that many of the groups overlapped with their examples of junk thought.  Junk thought is a term I had never heard of before this class.  And I am assuming not many other people had either.  Then after watching the podcast, and reading the articles we all got the same impression of the definition and came up with the same examples.  We all found the examples of gossip magazines, movies, tabloids, horoscopes and people will illegitimate thoughts.  I'm sure there are a lot of other examples out there but it was interesting to see how a lot of us came up with similar thoughts.