False consciousness

However objectivity keeps on being an elusive objective at the down to earth level. Indeed one school of thought demonstrates that aggregate objectivity is a hallucination which can never be accomplished. Since all research is guided by specific perspectives and perspectives include subjectivity. The fundamental perspectives ought to be clarified. Further he felt that subjectivity creeps in at different stages over the span of sociological research. The exceptionally decision of topic is…

What’s so special about being human? What makes us different from robots and other animals? These philosophical questions are by no doubt seemingly difficult to answer. Of course, the answer may differ for every individual, for it is a question that depends on one’s standard of being ‘human’. For instance, one might consider organisms that are merely biologically human as human, while others might accept organisms that have certain human characteristics as human. However, from the three…

To Be Alive Is To Be Dead Have you ever met the opposite of a zombie? You probably have, a zombie is a being that is dead but quite alive. The opposite of that is a person that is alive but quite dead. Most humans operate like robots and don’t know what's going on around them, they haven't found their purpose or realization of the purpose of life. An epiphany can bring some enlightenment or free those who are alive but “dead”. In James Joyce Dubliners there are many examples of people being…

Mind Control Imagine having the most private part of yourself being controlled by someone else; your thoughts, emotions and movements. Such act is referred to mind controlling or brainwashing. This performance can occur on volunteers or on people who are not expecting it. Mind control is a realistic idea that could very well take place in the future. With the help of technology and unbelievable devices, this may be able happen sooner that anyone could expect. Mind control takes over the ability…

Cavendish addresses the issue of knowledge and dualism in this selection from her work. In this passage she is responding to Descartes dualism and the divide between animal and human consciousness. Descartes is a very strong dualist who believes in human exceptionalism, where humans are the only species who can use the mind, proposing a fundamental difference between the mind and matter. Descartes believes that animals are matter and therefore mechanical beings. This idea of human exceptionalism…

Sigmund Freud, a world-renowned psychologist, best known for his work revolving around psychoanalytical psychology and the unconscious, came up with an idea called the “return of the repressed”. This idea details that individuals often lodge antisocial desires and impulses deep within our unconsciousness. Gail Hornstein calls these hidden desires and impulses “offending material”. In the case of Harlan Ellison’s short gothic story, “Shattered Like a Glass Goblin”, these materials are the…

In his book On the Plurality of Worlds, David Lewis introduces his counterpart theory. Lewis presents this as a solution to the concerns of possible world theory – namely the claims that possible worlds exist as concrete objects, “entering into spatiotemporal relations with each other and nothing else” – consequently making concrete possible worlds exist. However, one possible world cannot interact or affect another possible world, making them ‘spatiotemporally closed off’. This description is…

This week the episode of Star Trek, Commander Maddox wants to study Data. Data, an android learns that the dualism theory shows that the mind and the body are two different things. Overall, Data must contain both mind and body even though machines only contain the trait that is physical and not the mental traits within the body. It appears that Picard demonstrated the view of Emergentism and Maddox views the Dualism theory. According to Hasker (1983), in reference to Emergentism, “the human mind…

What is the self? There is an abundance of varying positions on what the self is. Although knowledge of the self dates back to the times of Ancient Greece, with Socrates and Plato, the context to support and prove each varying position of self-concept is certainly limited. As an example, the self can be described as the soul or the mind. There are also two opposing positions of what the self is – materialism and dualism. A materialistic approach is one that looks at the self as an unimportant…

In "Putnam's BIV and The Disjunctive Argument", Brueckner breaks down what Hilary Putnam was trying to communicate. Putnam first establishes the setting of the "brains in a vat" hypothesis, which is a world filled with envatted brains and computers that stimulate the brains, and it turns out that you are a brain inside a vat. These brains go by the name of BIV, and then she goes on to state that she is not a BIV due to the considerations pertaining to meaning, which concerns reference and truth.…