Ontology

Emergentism Proyash Sarkar Emergentism refers to a wide range of theories—right from dualism to physicalism. We shall see below that the basic contention of emergentism is neutral about the dualism/physicalism debate. Roughly speaking, emergentism about the mental is the claim that the mental is an emergent property of the physical. It arises out of the basal property, i.e. the physical, yet retains its independence, in the sense that it has its independent causal power. Thus the mental has its…

The Fountain of Youth Have you ever wanted to know about the legend of the Fountain of Youth? Do you think it’s real? Do you think it’s fake? What if it was real? Would you use it? Who started it? Well they say that Juan Ponce de Leon was the one who discovered about the Fountain of Youth. They say that the Fountain of Youth is a magical fountain that it’s water has power to reverse ageing. So there for you wouldn’t die of old age. Who made up the legend of the Fountain of Youth? Well…

According to Althusser, ideology represents the imaginary relationship of individuals to their real conditions of existence. This does not imply that ideology is a false idea of reality but rather a false idea of what our imagination creates. Due to our false conceptions, our illusions produce allusions to reality and “they need to be interpreted to discover the reality of the world behind their imaginary representation of that world.” Althusser claims that ideology is not the way individuals…

Dreams Are Our Reality Are our dreams a reality, or is our reality a dream ? We take for granted how our mind puts everything together. Certain dreams are a message to what could happen in reality. What we envision in our dreams is something everyone needs to treasure, so the world’s population has to know about the beauty of our mind’s dreams! Dreams are an extension to physical reality because they are powerful, have deep meanings that relates to real life, and cause certain events such as…

Rene Descartes 17th century philosopher formulated a trademark argument for the existence of God. His argument claimed notoriety as it was simple to comprehend, it follows as (1) Our idea of God is a perfect being (2) we are finite, while the concept of god is infinite (3) therefore it is a concept with more reality then my own mind (4) the cause of the concept god must have more reality as what the concept is of (5) therefore my mind must not have created it (6) the only possible cause is God…

Everyone has had an experience which has made them feel as it as irrational or unjustifiable. However, much of these experiences are looked at under doubtful examination, and have been explained to be logically justifiable and not at all mystical. Philosopher, William James (1910) explains these experiences and helps to understand them through his lecture on mysticism. His belief that no part of the experience should be left unexplored is what gained him a respectful popularity, James calls this…

Philosophy 001 Project 3: Descartes 1) Cartesian dualism refers to the philosophical view proposed by the French mathematician and philosopher Rene Descartes that describes and explains the relationship of the mind and body. According to this philosophical view, the Mind and the Body are two completely separate and different substances capable of interacting with one another. Descartes asserted that “[that is, [the] mind, by which I am what I am], is entirely and truly distinct from [the] body,…

The Problems with the Argument from Design The global argument from design is an analogy created by William Paley in which he attempted to formulate a cogent argument for the existence of God by drawing a connection between the order found in man-made objects and the order found in nature. The main issue regarding this topic is whether or not nature was created by an intelligent designer simply because a man-made object was. My position on the main issue is that I don’t believe you can make an…

Assessing Foster's Substance Dualist Interactionism One of the main topics discussed in philosophy involves the mind-body problem. Simply stated, this topic deals with the nature of the relationship between the body and the mind, and seeks to figure out whether the two are related. Philosopher John Foster advocates in favor of a substance dualist interactionism. This is the idea that although the body and the mind represent different entities, a material and immaterial substance respectively…

Though prophecy plays a large role in religions across the globe, its mechanisms and professors remain shrouded in mystery. Two philosophers who have attempted to explain the phenomenon are Moses Maimonides (1138-1204) and Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677). The most prominent source for Maimonides ideas about prophecy is his work The Guide of the Perplexed . Though not a true Aristotelian, Maimonides adheres to concepts derivative of classical philosophical ideas far more than his contemporary…